Rio Bike Lane Report in 30 Days

(ATR) Rio de Janeiro City Hall says the details surrounding the collapse of the Tim Maia cycle way will be released within 30 days.

The bike path, which when fully complete will connect Ipanema Beach to Barra da Tijuca, collapsed on April 22 killing at least two people. Five cyclists were using the path at the time of the collapse, and search and rescue teams are still working to locate the remaining three bodies.

The path of the bike path that collapsed was reportedly battered by strong waves from the Atlantic Ocean at the time of the collapse. Part of the path is built alongside a cliff overlooking the ocean. Witnesses told Brazilian newspaper O Globo that they saw waves lift up part of the bike path before it collapsed.

City Hall said on April 23 that they have tasked the Federal University of Rio de Janeiro and the National Institute of Waterways Research to deliver a report detailing the collapse. The report will examine the entire bike path, not just the section from Ipanema to Sao Conrado that is operational.

"We want a completely available technical evaluation about the accident," Pedro Paulo Carvalho, Executive Secretary of Government in Rio City Hall, said in a statement provided to Around the Rings. "Let's establish responsibility wherever they are."

The bike path is one of the many auxiliary Olympic legacy projects touted by the city government. This is not the first infrastructure project to collapse in Brazil ahead of a mega-sporting event. During the 2014 World Cup an overpass, built for the event, collapsed in Belo Horizonte killing two people on July 3, 2014.

The project cost $12.6 million to build, and the company tasked in building the project is owned by relatives of the Rio municipal public works secretary Antonio Paulo Viegas Figueira de Mello. The company declined to comment on the connection to local media, saying, "the priorities at the moment are to ensure treatment of the victims and their families and evaluate the causes of the accident."

No charges of corruption have been made in this project, although the country continues to be embroiled in one of the largest kickback schemes in history from the fallout of the Petrobras corruption scandal. To date no Olympic projects have been ensnared in the "Lava Jato" investigation that has seen many firms working on Olympic venues implicated in other contracts.

Rio de Janeiro has less than 100 days to complete all of the final construction measures for the 2016 Olympics. According to the organizing committee, venue construction is 98 percent complete, but many temporary overlays remain to be finalized.

Written by Aaron Bauer in Rio de Janeiro

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