DHAKA: Padma multipurpose bridge will remain in tact resisting earthquake and scouring of river bed. It will last unaffected for at least one hundred years.
To keep the strength of the bridge in tact the pile will be placed in a curved way. The pillars will be dived into 400 meters deep to take load of vehicles and rail way provisions of two storied bridge. Its height will be almost a 40-storied building.
These were disclosed in an exclusive interview with banglanews on the eve of diving the main piling by eminent geologist and engineer and also the chief of the bridge expert panel Professor Dr Jamilur Reza Choudhury.
The dreamer of the bridge Prime Minister Shaikh Hasina is set to inaugurate the diving of main piling on December 12.
Recently Professor Jamilur Reza Choudhury talked about pile diving at the newly constructed building of Asia Pacific University (APU) near Farm Gate in city.
The water flow of river Padma is next to Amazon of South America. In Padma 140 cubic meters of water flows per second.
During preparing the design it was calculated the average flow of water in 100 years. From that consideration the volume of water flows through the Padma in 20 seconds is enough for the Dhaka city for one day requirement.
He said that Bangladesh is a deltaic land formed by the alluvial soil carried through the Ganges from the Himalayas.
Geologist considers this land as a new deltaic land which may be termed as ‘Young Deltaic’ as he mentioned.
One of the special characteristics of this bridge is that this will be very deep one to the lowest layer.
He disclosed that below ten kilometers of Padma there is stone layer. But in other countries of the stone layer does not exist so below. For this reason we are using two hammers for diving the piles.
The hammer was brought from Germany and also specially made for Padma bridge. Such a big hammer was used earlier never in the world.
The reason for using this type of hammer is that the load capacity of Padma bridge will be much higher due to rail lines and road passage containing double storied passage.
He further said that pile will be dived up to 400 meters. The pillars of the bridge will be able to tolerate the load capacity. The bridge will stand on 41 spans. The spans will be fixed on 42 pillars and there will be six piles under each pillar.
Many think that where is main bridge progress - from his own query he said that it huge mobilization of materials and other equipments for this gigantic structure. Such gigantic work needs various requirements, for example collection of data, soil testing and so on.
The bridge will enter into a new phase with the inauguration of pile diving by Prime Minister Shaikh Hasina signaling the start of the work of the main bridge.
BDST: 1219 HRS, DEC 12, 2015
Shahjahan/RR/SMS
