Most of the country’s highways have become a nightmare as thousands of vehicles are plying on 752 risky bridges every day.
There are 5,026 bridges and culverts on roads and highways across the country that are at risk. Of these, 752 bridges are at risk on highways. There are 1,193 risky bridges on regional highways, according to RHD sources.
When contacted, Md. Abdus Sabur, Chief of RHD on Friday, told Bangladesh Post “Most of the time, 50-60 year old bridges or the old bailey bridges become risky. But we are trying to construct them. Besides, we build a lot of new bridges every year.”
“We have already directed the officials to collect information about risky and dilapidated bridges of the country,” he added.
In the meantime, the Aminbazar, Salehpur and Nayarhat bridges on the Dhaka-Aricha highway are at risk. The construction process of Nayarhat bridge has been started anew. And under the Salehpur bridge, there was a huge crack in the beam on one side. Following the detection of cracks, the R&HD has imposed restriction on plying of vehicles over a lane of the bridge. It has resulted in disruption of movement of vehicles due to additional pressure on the bridge. The users of the bridge now suffer great difficulties due to acute traffic congestion.
R&HD's additional chief engineer Sabuj Uddin Khan said, "The two-lane Salehpur Bridge has been declared "risky" due to the development of major cracks in the girder on the Dhaka-bound lane from Savar."
Locals said a portion of the Salehpur Bridge has caved in. Dozens of cracks have developed in four, out of eight beams beneath the bridge. Acute traffic congestion has been created due to the suspension of movement of vehicles on the "risky" lane of the bridge. Dhaka Roads Division started the repair work from 6:00am on Thursday closing down a lane of the bridge.
R&HD's Dhaka Roads Division executive engineer Muhammad Shamim Al Mamun said there is a two-lane bridge at Salehpur. Cracks have developed on one side of the bridge. Besides, one portion of the bridge has caved in.
"Major accidents may happen any time collapsing the bridge. Besides, road communications between Savar and north-western region of the country may face closure. We have started repair work after publishing a public notice. It may require two to three weeks to complete the repair work. We are trying to complete the repair work as quickly as possible," he said.
However, thousands of bridges and culverts are at risk on roads and highways across the country. The bridges and culverts have been damaged due to various natural and man-made disasters including floods, design and construction faults, vehicle collisions and overweight vehicle pressure.
Officials of the Roads and Highways Department (RHD) claimed that data collection has been undertaken for the purpose of repairing the bridges, no matter how damaged and dangerous it may be.
However, according to relevant sources, the RHD has launched a software to know the condition of any bridge in the country.
The software called ‘Bridge Maintenance Management System’ or BMMS is being used to collect up-to-date information on the bridges of the RHD with the help of JICA.
So far, updated information has been collected on 21,492 new and old bridges. These bridges have been divided into A, B, C and D categories. The number of bridges in A category is 13,533. These bridges are in good condition.
There are 2,933 bridges in the B category. They are slightly damaged and the bridges with 'Major Elemental Damage' have been categorized into C. The number of such bridges is 3,930.
And the bridges with 'Major Structural Damage' have been placed in D category. The number of D category bridges in the network of RHD is 1,090. There are 5,026 bridges and culverts in the C and D category at risk.
According to RHD, the Postogola Bridge in Dhaka was damaged in a launch sinking at Sadarghat in June last year by a ship that had come to take part in the rescue operation. Since then, a limited number of vehicles have been plying on the bridge. The bridge at the important entrance of Dhaka is still in danger.
However, there are 17 risky bridges on the Chattogram-Teknaf highway. Besides, the process of upgrading Dhaka-Sylhet-Tamabil National Highway to four lanes is underway. There are 51 risky bridges and culverts on that highway.
Similarly, there are 40 on Dhaka-Mymensingh highway, 20 on Joydebpur-Jamalpur highway, 107 on Dhaka-Rangpur-Panchagarh highway, 4 on Sirajganj-Rajshahi highway, 48 on Rajbari-Khulna highway and 55 on Dhaka-Barisal-Patuakhali highway. This is a picture of 8 major national highways of the country, according to sources from RHD.
Roads and highways experts said that the condition of existing bridges on other national highways, regional and district highways is more fragile. Roads and bridges are supposed to be repaired, especially before the monsoons, but every year during the monsoons, repairs are done in full swing.
