The long delay in repairing the Meghna and Gumti bridges on
Dhaka-Chittagong highway has rendered the structures even riskier for
vehicles, say experts and communications ministry officials.
Failing
to find an eligible contractor, the government in May awarded the
repair job to Bangladesh Army. However, that helped little, as the army
has opted to award the job to a sub-contractor.
It would take at
least two months to complete the process of awarding the work to a
subcontractor, sources in the communications ministry said.
Most
of the expansion joints and the hinge bearings of the Meghna and Gumti
bridges are damaged. They are very bumpy and there is the bang every
time a vehicle goes over them. However, it is the riverbed scouring that
put the bridges under serious threat. Several piers of the bridges are
in a danger due to extensive scouring.
Prof Khan Mahmud Amanat of
Buet's civil engineering department said, “The repair work will
hopefully begin in October, but before that a number of tasks have to be
completed. Of them, preparing an alternative road for traffic movement
and selecting an eligible firm for repairing the bridge decks are
crucial.”
Amanat, who is a member of an expert panel of the repair
task, said the authorities would also have to draw up an effective
strategy to handle the huge number of daily traffic, as the bridges
would remain closed for six hours every day during the 15-day deck
repairs. Then there would be a time when the bridges would be closed to
traffic for a few days straight.
“The authorities will face a
stiff challenge to handle the traffic when the bridges remain closed for
several days at a stretch,” said Amanat, adding that the engagement of
the army would be helpful in this regard.
On an average 30,000 vehicles, including goods-carrying trucks and lorries ply the Dhaka-Ctg highway daily.
The
problem could have been easily avoided had the bridges been dual
carriageway. The repairs could have been done keeping two lanes open to
traffic.
Apart from diverting traffic, the government would have
to deploy a good number of ferries and boats so that vehicles and people
could cross the Meghna river during the repairs.
The detour for
the Dhaka-Chittagong traffic would be
Dhaka-Bhairab-Brahmanbaria-Mainamoti-Chittagong. This means people would
have to travel an extra 90km.
Three bailey bridges and some
stretches on the detour need to be repaired for a smoother ride, the RHD
Superintendent Engineer Shahabuddin Khan of Dhaka Zone told The Daily
Star. He said the repairing works of the bailey bridges and roads had
already started.
Communications Minister Obaidul Quader in
December last year identified the bridges as risky. He said the bridges
might collapse anytime. Later, while visiting the bridges, he blasted
the Roads and Highways Department (RHD) officials for the poor condition
of the bridges.
In 2009, the communications ministry repaired the
damage to the expansion joints, hinge bearings and the decks of the
bridges. But those got damaged again within a year due to plying of
overloaded vehicles.
Since then experts had been insisting on an urgent repair of the bridges.
It
took the communications ministry a year to take up a Tk 150 crore
project to repair the bridges. The RHD in February floated a tender but
none of the five bidders qualified for the job.
“We decided to
float a second tender to find an eligible bidder by relaxing some of the
criteria. But the government suddenly gave the job to the army,” said
an RHD official.
The army was in the process of appointing an
international firm for the repairs. Buet's experts and Japan
International Cooperation Agency officials were helping them in this
regard.
Director General of Special Works Organisation (East) of
the Bangladesh Army Col Abu Sayed, who is supervising the repair works,
said they had already contacted several Japanese companies. “We are
hoping to select a company soon,” he said.
He said some steel and
rubber plates had been placed on the badly damaged points of the bridge
as a temporary measure to check further damage.
Sources said of
the Tk 150 crore, Tk 20-30 crore would be spent for repairs of the decks
while the rest would be spent on the piers.
However, it is still unknown exactly when the repairs of damage done by the riverbed scouring would begin.
Amanat, however, said it would begin immediately after repairs of the decks are done.
