The barge that got stuck under Thi Nghe Bridge in Ho Chi Minh City Tuesday afternoon.

It will take at least two months to repair the damage caused by a drifting barge that crashed into the Thi Nghe Bridge in Ho Chi Minh City on Tuesday, officials said Thursday.

The accident happened Tuesday evening when the barge drifted away from its moorings and hit the bridge causing cracks in one of the spans. The accident blocked traffic on many streets around it for several hours.

The 880 ton barge carrying eight girdles was not fastened securely and it began drifting at around 1:30p.m. and drifted downstream before crashing into the Thi Nghe Bridge that connects Districts 1 and Binh Thanh.

Around one third of the barge was stuck below the bridge and high tides then caused it to raise the bridge up by 50 centimeters. City authorities had to saw the barge and pump water to lower it before towing it away.

Traffic jams were caused on Nguyen Huu Canh, Dinh Tien Hoang, Dien Bien Phu, Nguyen Binh Khiem and Nguyen Thi Minh Khai streets.

A crack nearly 60 centimeters long and three meters wide appeared on one beam of the bridge at around 5p.m. Tuesday.

The barge is owned by the China State Construction Engineering Corp. which is building a 16-kilometer dyke along the Nhieu Loc-Thi Nghe Canal as part of city’s Environment Hygiene Project.

Tran Quoc Thong, a coordinator of the package, was quoted by Vietnam News Agency on Wedneday as saying that the barge was allowed to be anchored on the canal because it is part of the package.

Trucks, public buses and cars with more than nine-seats have been barred from using the bridge till the damage is assessed by experts.

The Thi Nghe Bridge crossing the Thi Nghe Canal is 105.2 meters long and 13.2 meters wide. It was built before 1975 for vehicles weighing up to 20 tons.

Reported by Mai Vong