16 missing in China tunnel collapse - 3rd collapse in 2 months

Ganzhou - Chinese state media is reporting that 16 people are trapped after a Daqing-Guangzhou Expressway tunnel in the Jiangxi Province collapsed Sunday evening.

Xinhua says the tunnel, which is part of the 3,429 km-expressway spanning from Heilongjiang Province to the southern Guangdong Province, is still under construction. The collapse occurred around 10 p.m. Sunday. As of 12:00 PM Monday, those trapped inside had yet to be located and rescuers told the Washington Post they had no updates. This is the latest in a series of tunnel collapses that saw two different tunnels collapse in July. On July 5th, three railway workers were finally rescued after being trapped for eight days when a portion of the under construction Hongling Tunnel collapsed. On July 29th four people were killed and four were injured after part of a the Xiazhang Highway Tunnel collapsed. On Friday, InvestorPlace reported the Chinese government plans to build 1,254 miles of roads, nine new sewage-treatment plants, five port improvement projects and two waterway system enhancements. What is missing from the report are plans to improve the safety of infrastructure projects. On August 24th, a bridge collapsed in northern China, killing three people and injuring five others according to a BBC News report. The bridge had been completed nine months prior to the collapse. Poor construction and over-loading were blamed for the incident. The collapse left no one surprised and was China's sixth major bridge collapse since July of 2011 an International Business Times report says. A China Digital Times article released today points out that although the new infrastructure building plan may be the “world’s most dynamic” according to per-capita GDP growth, there are "many pitfalls of rapid development that can be seen in China."