Murray & Roberts shares down after Grayston drive bridge collapse

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Murray & Roberts Holdings shares dropped 7.3 percent to R11.15 after Grayston drive bridge collapse. Murray & Roberts Holdings shares dropped 7.3 percent to R11.15 after Grayston drive bridge collapse.

SA’s second-biggest construction group, Murray & Roberts Holdings shares fell the most in more than four and a half years after a bridge collapsed over M1 highway at Grayston Drive Sandton.

The stock dropped dropped 7.3% to R11.15 at the close on the JSE, the most since February 2011, extending its decline for the year to 48 percent.

“Murray and Roberts has got a contract to build a pedestrian bridge over the highway,” spokesman Ed Jardim said by phone on Wednesday. “What has collapsed is the temporary formwork.”

Two people died as a result of the collapse and 21 were injured, according to Chris Botha, a spokesman for Netcare 911, the ambulance and trauma unit of Netcare Ltd., which had paramedics on scene.

According to reports, the scaffolding and parts of a bridge under construction at Grayston Drive collapsed on Wednesday afternoon.

"Engineers suspect that a gust of wind in the area led to the accident‚" the City of Johannesburg said on social media site Twitter. "The scaffolding fell on the front part of a minibus taxi while a private vehicle was completely covered by the scaffolding."

Arrive Alive and ER24 said earlier Wednesday that one of the dead was a taxi driver.

Several cars were believed to have been stationary‚ stuck in traffic‚ when the bridge fell. Reports from motorists on the highway indicated that steel girders had pierced car roofs‚ trapping those inside.

ER24 spokesman Chitra Bodasing said on Wednesday afternoon that they were dispatching additional paramedics from the city and its surrounding areas. "The situation is fluid. Paramedics are battling on the scene‚ treating patients and trying to stabilise those that they are treating."

The City of Johannesburg promised an independent investigation by engineers into the cause of the pedestrian bridge collapse.

Mayor Parks Tau visited the scene‚ where emergency service workers and paramedics were helping the injured. An air ambulance was also dispatched to help patients.

He confirmed that there were two fatalities in what he referred to as a "construction tragedy".

Mr Tau said the contractor‚ Murray & Roberts‚ was "responding proactively" to the accident but the city would appoint independent engineers to look into its cause.

The mayor said the city would liaise with a Department of Labour investigation into the "unfortunate incident"‚ expressing his condolences to the families of the dead and those injured. "Corrective action will be taken," should anyone be found culpable, the mayor said.

He said 10‚000 pedestrians used the bridge.

The Ecomobility Festival‚ intended to get people using public transport instead of private vehicles‚ was temporarily lifted. Major delays have been reported on Grayston‚ Corlett‚ Oxford‚ Jan Smuts‚ William Nicol‚ Louis Botha and other routes due to the bridge collapse.


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