Padma Bridge's faults being traced, fixed

The 6.15-km-long Padma Bridge, opened two and a half months back, still has over 500 major and minor faults, which have to be addressed and repaired to make it an international-standard one in 'true sense'.

Sources close to the construction supervision consultant (CSC) of the Padma Multipurpose Bridge (PMB) project said inauguration of the country's longest bridge was allowed for traffic after completing major works.

But over 1,000 major and minor faults remained unaddressed at that time, which are now being identified and repaired, they added.

When asked, Project Director M Shafiqul Islam partly admitted the allegation; but said as part of the contract, the defects are being found out by the contractor concerned and repaired with due attention.

He opined that major and minor faults are common in the mega and challenging projects, like the Padma Bridge, which are usually addressed during the defect liability period.

"Many defects are known to us and many still remain unknown," the PD added, citing an example that it is now being tried to find defects in the steel structure by entering into the truss one by one.

The CSC-2 is responsible of supervising the main bridge work and its river training from the government side. It held a review meeting with the main bridge contractor China Major Bridge Engineering Company (MBEC) and the PMB project officials on August 23.

The meeting sources said the contractor repaired 54 percent of the currently identified 1,100 defects. It was also guided to find out mistakes, faults or incomplete works by scrutinising the entire project structures.

As construction of the two-tier Padma Bridge, built with steel-truss composite, has been carried over for a period of seven years, possibility of finding many faults is common, they added.

"More than 1,100 faults (found so far) are reasonably normal for a project of this size and complexity, as the bridge has been constructed for over seven years," said one of them, preferring anonymity.

Opening of the Tk 301.9-billion PMB overwhelmed the entire nation, and also got international attention. The government's construction of such a complex and challenging bridge with its own fund was also welcomed by many critics.