People suffer for incomplete bridge in Barishal

BARISHAL, Aug 15: The people of Satla, Bisharkandi, Harta, Jalla, Otra, Shikarpur and surrounding areas of Uzirpur Upazila of the district have been suffering much for a long time due to an incomplete bridge on the Kacha River.

The construction of the bridge had started in 2018 and was expected to strengthen road communication with Gopalganj District. Instead, the project has become a story of delays, redesign and rising costs. 

According to the Local Government Engineering Department (LGED), the original project involved a 405-metre pre-stressed concrete girder bridge with an estimated cost of about Tk 380 million. Construction, however, suffered a major setback in 2020.

During construction, two 45-metre concrete girders collapsed into the Kacha River at Satla Chowmuhoni. The accident delayed the project by several months. At that time, project manager Syed Monirul Islam of contractor OTBL said the collapse occurred due to a mechanical failure while a crane was moving one of the girders. LGED later said there was no defect in the girders. Officials blamed the accident on a jack slipping during the lifting operation.

The girder collapse was not the project’s only problem. After the main bridge structure was completed, engineers encountered difficulties while constructing the approach road. Officials said the bridge had been designed with higher clearance because large passenger launches once navigated the river route to Dhaka. That meant the approach embankment would need to be around 11 metres high. The area’s soft soil, however, could not safely support such a structure.

Uzirpur Upazila Engineer Subrata Roy said, “The original plan included only the 405-metre bridge and conventional approaches. But during construction we found that an 11-metre retaining structure would be unstable because of the weak soil. Engineers eventually abandoned the original approach design.”

“Instead, LGED approved the construction of two viaducts, each 180 metres long, on both sides of the bridge. The additional 360 metres reduced the fill height to around five metres and made the approach structurally safer. As a result, the total bridge structure increased from 405 metres to 765 metres,” he added. 

Roy said the original bridge cost around Tk 380 million. The new viaducts added another Tk 220 million. The total project cost has now reached nearly Tk 600 million. He said the viaduct work has been completed, while piling and approach road construction are still underway. 

According to project officials, the redesign became necessary because of the site’s poor soil conditions.
Edward Biswas Nannu, former chairman of Bisharkandi Union, said the bridge would significantly ease travel to Gopalganj and eliminate the long-standing hardship of ferry crossings. But people have been waiting for years, he said.

Following the girder collapse, Amir Construction was assigned to complete the remaining work. 
Saikot Hossain, Manager of the company, said the main bridge has already been completed and work on the approach road is progressing. “We are trying to complete the remaining work as quickly as possible,” he said.