Just a year after construction of the Dhaka-Chittagong four-lane highway, the government department concerned goes for its maintenance and repair for some faults and damage, officials said.
The Roads and Highways Department (HRD) has already come up with a Tk 9.44-billion project to do maintenance work and repair of the present and future ruptures, they said Friday.
The construction work of the 192-kilometre key economic corridor of Bangladesh were completed in December 2016 by investing Tk 38.17 billion from the country's internal resources.
In the meantime, sources said, some damage and cracks got exposed on the road owing to the plying of overloaded trucks and heavy-duty vehicles.
So, it needs repairs and continuous maintenance works for keeping the road operational, they said.
Additional Chief Engineer of the Planning and Maintenance Wing of RHD Md. Abul Kashem Bhuiyan told the FE that as there is a possibility of damage to the highway in the future due to defiance of the "axel-load" rules by the vehicles, they decided to take up the project for five years.
"Normally we conduct maintenance of all the roads across the country after the construction from our revenue budget. But this time we have undertaken a development project to conduct the maintenance and repair works for next five years," he added.
Asked what prompted repair and maintenance of the newly built highway just after a year of inauguration, the RHD additional chief engineer said there is possibility of damage to be wrought due to overloading of vehicles. "So, we are taking the project to conduct repair and maintenance for next five years."
He said they had recently sent the Tk 9.44 billion worth of Maintenance of Dhaka-Chittagong 4-lane Highway Project proposal to the Planning Commission (PC) for its seal of approval.
A senior Planning Commission official said they were scrutinising the project proposal of the RHD.
However, the official raised question about the necessity of the Tk9.44- billion-cost project for upkeep of a road just after one year of its construction.
According to the project proposal, the RHD will go for repair and strengthening of the highway at some points, surfacing or overlay, wearing course, root-filling, and constructing foot-over bridges for the pedestrians, setting up median-guard post-Berrien-sign-signal.
Transport expert and Civil Engineering Professor of the Bangladesh University of Engineering and Technology (BUET) Dr. Moazzem Hossain told the FE that the RHD should have been cautious during construction of the country's highest-loaded road.
"There was some more scope of improving the road-construction quality. But the authorities have not followed it," he said.
Since 80-90 per cent of country's heavy-duty vehicles use the Dhaka-Chittagong Highway, the authorities could keep it in mind before going for construction work, the professor added.
"Usually, lifespan of the surface of a road is nearly 10-20 years and it needs to go for 'overlay' or 'surfacing' after 7-10 years. But if the RHD goes for the overlay on the road within 2-3 years, it must have some faults or mismanagement," he said on a note of skepticism.
Professor Hossain said: "Since it has been assumed that the Dhaka-Chittagong highway will have to bear the overload, the RHD should use the upgraded "polymer-modified bitumen.
"But, sorry to say, it has used the traditional bitumen for the construction. The heavy-duty roads across the world generally use the upgraded bitumen to check any possible damage due to the overloading factors."
