July 07, Kathmandu.
The government, which has not been serious about the safety of the bridges, has been focusing on the negligence and poor quality of the bridges in recent times. The construction businessmen have not admitted their weakness when the bridge collapsed, nor has the government taken any action to find them guilty.
A bridge being built over the Trishuli River connecting Devghat of Tanahu and Thimura of Chitwan collapsed on the night of April 8.
The report of the committee formed to investigate the collapse of the bridge was put in a drawer by the Road Department. According to a department source, the incident was repeated in the report due to the negligent work of the contractor company.
As many as 18 bridges have been damaged in Vaishakhya alone due to such negligence in the construction of the bridge and failure to address the insecurity of the bridges in time. According to Shiva Prasad Nepal, spokesperson of the Road Department, 14 out of 18 bridges are affiliated to the Road Department and 4 are bridges built by the state, local level and other departments. About Rs 1.25 billion has been lost due to the collapse of these bridges.
The Department of Roads is still silent about the mishap caused by the collapse of 80 meters of the 220-meter-long bridge at Thimura in Chitwan. Neither the investigation report has been made public, nor has the department informed that action has been taken against the culprit.
The government has formed an investigation committee under the coordination of Deepak Shrestha, chief of the bridge division of the department, to complete the task.
The government, which has failed to punish the culprits, has not been serious about the incidents of a bridge collapse, flooding and damage, despite repeated incidents.
The number of bridges being washed away by the river has increased at an alarming rate in the last two years. However, the Department of Roads, the Department of Local Infrastructure, the state government and the local level are not serious about solving such problems.
The Rs 250 million bridge over the Kamala River connecting Dhanusha and Siraha was completed 10 years after it was started. The pillar of the bridge was washed away in the general flood on July 3 while the work of the last phase was in progress.
A day later, a concrete bridge over the Triyuga River in Chaudandigarhi Municipality-5 of Udayapur collapsed. Two spans of the bridge, which was in the final stages of construction, were damaged.
Rain sensitive work
There have been more than a dozen such incidents since July. It is unknown at this time what he will do after leaving the post. The number of broken and flooded bridges under construction and newly built is increasing every year. Experts suggest the government take such incidents as a lesson and move forward.
Prakash Upadhyaya, a former senior divisional engineer, sees that the problem is getting worse as there is no habit of learning from the incident. Upadhyaya says that there is no single reason for the collapse of bridges. In recent days, sand and mud have been piled up and the span of the bridge has been sloped.
"It is customary to scaffold the soil from the bottom for the form when the bridge is being demolished," he said. More such incidents are happening now. ' Last week, a bridge being built on the Samari River in Makwanpur was washed away in a similar situation.
There is a tendency in government bodies not to do adequate monitoring during the construction of the bridge and to blame the consultants and contractors for the collapse. Experts say that this problem is repeated even when the contractor does not employ skilled manpower.
Inadequate budget and poor design for the bridge has led to accidents even when the concerned bodies are trying to work on it. The practice of getting a contract by adding up to 40 per cent in the tender prepared by keeping the budget low is increasing.
According to Upadhyaya, a former senior divisional engineer, there may have been problems in the quality of construction materials used in the bridge. According to him, there is no reliable laboratory in Nepal to test the quality of construction materials.
‘Testing should not be done to represent the overall construction material’, he says. According to Upadhyaya, the number of collapses has increased due to negligence on the part of contractors, engineers, workers and the project.
Questions in study, design, construction and supervision
Experts say that the process of building weak bridges will not stop until the path of study, design and construction and supervision is strengthened. Geological engineer Bhesraj Thapa says that there is a problem in designing the bridge by calculating the flow of water in 100 years. "Not only does the river always flow with crystal clear water, but it also gets mixed up with rocks, ballast sand and various other materials," he says. "But, even without this study, the problem may have increased."
According to him, development works have increased in the hilly areas and rural roads are being dug attractively. The soil and stones that come out of it reach the river. He said that the bridges could not withstand the increased pressure on the river due to such reasons.
He said that there was a problem in the study as there was no old data on the flow of river water. According to Thapa, the bridges have been affected due to the increase in the number of torrential rains due to climate change in recent times.
He believes that the government should now increase the study limit and build bridges based on more than 200 years. According to Thapa, based on the study of water flow, problems can arise even if the infrastructure is not designed and constructed.
There is a tendency among contractors not to use new technology and not to involve experts. Experts say that even if the geological test is not based on scientific facts, the bridges will float.
The negligence of the contractor is also found in the construction of bridges of correct design. Delays in construction and the use of poor quality materials have also led to an increase in the number of bridges collapsing. He believes that the government's tendency of not supervising during the construction and not working properly in collaboration with the contractors and consultants are also to blame.
Government and contractor's own arguments
Construction businessmen, on the other hand, claim that the floods have increased the number of bridges being built due to the difficult situation created by the epidemic. Ravi Singh, president of the Federation of Construction Entrepreneurs of Nepal, says that the floods have started due to lack of labour, supply of goods and storms and epidemics in different seasons.
"Pre-stress technology has increased the number of bridges being built. When building such a bridge, you have to pull the wire from both sides only by holding the slab from the bottom for 28 days," he says.
He argued that many incidents had taken place as supplies from India could not arrive on time and supply arrangements were not easy due to the ban.He said some of the bridges may have been designed incorrectly. He said that the actual condition of the river was not taken into consideration while designing the bridges that flowed in Kamala and Udayapur.
"There is a 700-meter bridge on the east-west highway in Kamala, but it has been built at a distance of 470 meters on the postal highway. Isn't that why the bridge will not flood?" He says, "The bridges on the road to Manang are flooded due to unexpected rains and river surface. It is unthinkable that the river would flood during the design and construction."
According to Singh, the bridges have suffered more damage this year due to the heavy rains of 27/28 years. "Designing bridges across Hachuwa without studying the flow of the river has also added to the problem," he said.
Officials of the Department of Roads, on the other hand, say that the incidence of drifting, breaking and floating has increased due to a lack of necessary knowledge and precautions as new technology bridges are being built in Nepal."In the past, the distance between the pillars was only 25 meters in the RCC bridge. Now, the bridge is being built with a distance of 55 meters using pressurized technology," said Shiva Prasad Nepal, Deputy Director-General and Spokesperson of the Roads Department. In some cases, the monitoring side may have been weakened.
He said that the department will work by learning lessons from the incident of the bridge being built in Tanahu. He said, "Training is also needed for the engineers and construction professionals of the department on the bridge of new technology."
Rohit Bisural, director of the Postal Road Planning Directorate, says that the quality of the bridges built for 100 years is in question. He said that the department is ready to investigate the incidents and take action against the culprits.
"The locals are happy when the bridge is built over the years, but they are shocked by such incidents," he said.
