August 2006. Diyala Bridge, Baghdad, Iraq.
The hole in the bridge was caused by a truck – laden with explosives – that was bound for Baghdad city centre.
A common tactic by the insurgents is to detonate huge bombs in busy crowded areas, creating death and destruction on a huge scale.
This time however, they didn’t get through. They were intercepted by a US Army patrol. The only casualties were the two would be terrorists, killing themselves as they detonated their 1,700kg load, and the bridge.
My job was to carry out a structural survey to ensure that the bridge was safe. To do that, we had to ensure that the whole area was locked down.
Luckily, the explosion didn’t effect the support structure, so after the hole was filled the bridge was good to go.