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Delay in repair makes 2 bridges vulnerable

M Abul Kalam Azad
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
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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 duringthe 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 forthejob.
“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 scouringwould begin.
Amanat, however, said it would begin immediately after repairs of the decks are