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Overloaded trucks expose Jamuna bridge to damage

MorshedAli Khan
The Jamuna Multipurpose Bridge Authority (JMBA) is allowing overloaded trucks to use the bridge exposing it to serious damage in violationofrules.
In the first few days after the inauguration of the bridge in 1998, the South African leaseholder of JMB toll plaza JOMAC - used the four weigh bridges, two on each side, to prevent overloaded trucks crossing the bridge to protect it from damage, JMBA sources said.
But 'some officials' of the JMBA then asked JOMAC not to comply
with the rules on the plying of overloaded trucks on the bridge.
A transport expert and an engineer of Technical Services of the Roads and Highways Department (R&HD) said overloaded trucks are damaging roads and bridges across the country.
"Despite being equipped with weigh bridges, the JMBA is ignoring how much damage an overloaded truck can cause to the bridge," he said on condition of anonymity.
Die bridge was built on a loan of S600 million from Japan Bank for International Cooperation, Asian Development Bank and World Bank
(WB).
WB sources said the matter is of 'utmost concern' for the donors. The WB told the government to implement the relevant rules to stop overloaded trucks using the bridge, a source said.
"The government has endorsed formulating a Land TYanspori Policy and we are emphasising strict implementation of the rules under this policy. Diis time we will stick to our stand," thesource said.
Engineers and transport experts said more than 90 percent trucks in Bangladesh have two axles and arc permitted to carry five tonnes of goods. The vehicles weigh approximately five tonnes. Rules require that 40 percent of the load must be put on the front wheels and 60 percent on the rear wheels. Unscrupulous transport owners and workers almost invariably violate traffic laws and load up to 18 tonnes of goods in a truck without any police intervention.
Overloading generates 'extreme pressure' on the roads and bridges and gradually weakens their base.
According to engineers of Technical Services of the R&HD, the cost of repair of these infrastructures is so high that the government
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cannot afford it. Whenever overloading occurs, the pressure of a running vehicle on the road multiplies and when an overloaded vehicle applies its brakes, the pressure is even greater. Unchecked overloading is fast damaging the country's communication infrastructure, they said.
"The load capacity on each square foot of a road and a bridge is clearly mentioned by engineers and other experts after their completion. If that limit is violated, the structures are sure to suffer damage," an engineer said.
"You do not see the damage on a bridge due to overloading in one day. It happens in geometrical progression and takes a long time before surfacing," said another engineer.
The director of Marganet One Ltd, the present leaseholder of the JMB toll plaza, Minhajuddin M Kamal, told The Daily Star that when they got the
five-year lease for Tk 51.14 crore in April 2004, the weigh bridges were not in use. The former leaseholder 'never' used the weigh bridges and the JMBA also never instructed it to operate them.
Director (administration) of the JMBA Yusuf Jahangir declined to comment on the matter, saying he was not authorised to talk to the press.
JMBA sources said up to 2,200 trucks cross the bridge on average a day.
Contacted, Communications Minister Nazmul Huda said his ministry was aware of the problem. Even truck owners' associations want to get rid of overloading, he said.
"I know how much damage is caused by overloading and we have decided to install weigh bridges at all major bridges and we hope to implement the rules in two or three months," Huda said.