The authorities concerned could not resolve yet the problem created over not having adequate vertical and horizontal clearances at the crossing point of rail tracks and approach roads of the Padma Bridge, sources said.
They said Bangladesh Railway (BR) and Bangladesh Bridge Authority (BBA) have shared their proposals with the Bangladesh University of Engineering and Technology (BUET) two weeks ago, but could not reach a solution yet.
"We are still working on the design of vertical and horizontal clearance," said project director of BR's Padma Bridge Rail Link (PBRL) Golam Fakhruddin Ahmed Chowdhury.
He said BUET's technical solutions are now being shared with the Chinese design consultants to find a solution.
According to sources, the BUET's team which has been working in association with the construction supervision consultant (CSC) of PBRL project reviewed both BR and BBA's proposals, but found most of those have some sort of technical problems.
They said that as there is no scope of changing the alignment, technical solution is being tried.
The PD while talking at his office told the FE that they will finalise the design after sharing it with the BBA.
BBA, the implementing agency of the Padma Multipurpose Bridge (PMB) Project, has stopped construction of piers under the PBRL project when they found the horizontal and vertical gap between the road and rail track was kept without following the geometric design standards manual 2005.
According to the PMB project office, the BR's project did not follow 15.5-metre horizontal clearance (HC) and 5.7-metre vertical clearance (VC) between road and rail track. The pier has been designed with 5.1-metre VC and 10-metre HC.
Since then, the problems have been tried to solve at the higher level as the BR was not ready to accept its fault.
BR's PBRL project, which is constructing the rail tract on both sides of the 6.15-kilometre Padma bridge to connect Dhaka with the southwestern districts, said they would later adjust the approach road with the elevated rail track.
However, the BBA placed two proposals to find technical solution after it shared the problem with its PMB project's panel of experts (PoEs).
Chairman of the PoEs Prof Shamsuzzaman Basunia told the FE over phone that he did not find any fault in the design when its construction was not completed. "Possible technical solution was given," he added
A BUET source also said the projects like PBRL may face many challenges at design and construction stages which are being solved technically though checking and cross-checking.
The BBA's PMB project has been constructing two-tier bridge keeping road on the top and rail on the bottom. It has already completed 12-km approach roads on both sides of the country's longest bridge.
BR started the work to develop the 215.22 km rail track both sides of the bridge. Though the government wants to inaugurate the movement of both rail and road through the bridge next year, the BR's project was delayed due to taking time in signing agreement on Chinese loan.
Both the projects, included as fast track projects, are being implemented by Chinese companies - China Rail Group and China Major Bridge. CMB is a sister concern of CRG.
