The bridge established a
strategic link between the eastern and western parts of Bangladesh. It
generates multifarious benefits for the people and especially, promotes
inter-regional trade in the country. Apart from quick movement of goods and
passenger traffic by road and rail, it facilitated transmission of electricity
and natural gas, and integration of telecommunication links. The bridge is
located on the Asian Highway and the Trans-Asian Railway which, when fully
developed, will provide uninterrupted international road and railway links from
South-east Asia through Central Asia to North-west Europe.
History of construction
The river Jamuna (Brahmaputra),
along with the lower stretch of the Padma (Ganges) divides Bangladesh into
nearly two equal halves. Until now all road and rail communication between the
two parts of the country has had to rely on time-consuming ferry services that
were often disrupted because of navigability problems. The need for a bridge
over the Jamuna River
was felt, especially by the people living in northwestern Bangladesh, for
a long time. This perceived need did not go unnoticed by the policy makers. The
people and successive governments always longed to bridge the mighty Jamuna and
thereby integrate the communication systems of the region.
Popular leader Maulana Abdul
Hamid Khan Bhashani first raised the demand for construction of the Jamuna Bridge
at a political level in 1949. In the 1954 provincial elections of East Pakistan, the 21-point manifesto of the united front
contained a demand for the bridge. On January 6, 1964, Mohammad Saifur Rahman,
a member from Rangpur in the Provincial Assembly inquired about government's
intentions with regard to the construction of a bridge over the Jamuna. On July
11, 1966, Shamsul Haque, another member from Rangpur in the same Assembly,
moved a resolution for the construction of the bridge and the house adopted it
unanimously.
Accordingly, a preliminary feasibility
study was carried out in 1969 by Freeman Fox and Partners of UK. They
recommended a rail-cum-road bridge near Sirajganj with an estimated cost of
$175 million. The estimates were preliminary and a more detailed study was
recommended. On the other hand, in his address to the nation over radio and television
on the eve of general election in Pakistan
in 1970, the Awami League leader Sheikh Mujibur Rahman mentioned the
construction of Jamuna
Bridge as an election
pledge of his party. But all efforts were interrupted due to political unrest
and liberation war.
After Bangladesh attained independence in
1971, the new government publicly stated its intention in 1972 to construct a
bridge over the Jamuna and budgetary provisions were kept for the purpose in
the 1972-73 budget. On being invited by the Bangladesh government, the Japan
International Cooperation Agency (JICA) funded a feasibility study through Nippon
Koei Co. Ltd. in 1973 on the construction of a road-cum-rail bridge over the
Jamuna.
The JICA study, completed in
1976, concluded that the Jamuna project would cost $683 million with an
economic rate of return (ERR) of only 2.6%. Considering that the project was
not technically and economically viable, the government abandoned it. The
government revived it in 1982 and commissioned a new study to determine the
feasibility of transferring natural gas to western parts of the country across
the Jamuna. The study concluded that an independent gas connector was not
economically viable. However, the consultants made an assessment of the
engineering feasibility and cost of a combined road-cum-gas transmission
bridge, which introduced the concept of a multipurpose bridge. It was estimated
that a 12-km long bridge with three road lanes would cost $420 million. Upon
consideration of the report, the cabinet made a decision to take immediate
steps in pursuit of the project.
The Jamuna Multipurpose Bridge
Authority (JMBA) was set up by an ordinance promulgated by the then President Hussain
Muhammad Ershad on July 3, 1985 to implement the project. For mobilisation of
domestic resources, another ordinance was promulgated by which a Jamuna Bridge
surcharge and levy were introduced. A total of Tk 5.08 billion was mobilised in
the process till its abolition.
In 1986, phase-I feasibility
study for the bridge was carried out when the site between Sirajganj and
Bhuapur (Tangail) was found to be the best. Between 1987 and 1989, the phase-II
feasibility study was carried out when a road-cum-rail-cum-power bridge was
found both economically and technically viable. Funding arrangements for the
bridge were finally made with IDA, ADB and JBIC (formerly known as OECF) of Japan by the government of Bangladesh in
1992. Tenders were invited through international bidding for construction
contracts in 1993. Contracts for the bridge, river training work and two
approach roads were awarded in March 1994. The foundation stone of the bridge
was laid on April 10, 1994 by the then Prime Minister Begum Khaleda Zia.
Physical implementation of the project commenced on October 15, 1994, and all
the components except gas transmission line were completed by June 1998. The
bridge was opened for traffic on June 23, 1998.
Jamuna Multipurpose
Bridge was constructed by
Hyundai Heavy Industries at a cost of $696 million. The cost was shared by IDA, ADB, OECD, and the
government of Bangladesh.
Of the total, IDA, ADB and OECD supplied $200 million each through a loan with
1% nominal interest, and the remaining $96
million was borne by Bangladesh.
The main bridge is 4.8 km
long with 47 main spans of approximately 100 metres and two end spans of
approximately 65 metres. Connected to the bridge are east and west approach viaducts
each with 12 spans of 10 metre length and transition spans of 8 metres. The
total width of the bridge deck is 18.5 metres.
The river crossing was designed
to carry a dual two-lane carriageway, a dual gauge (broad and metre) railway, a
high voltage (230 kV) electrical interconnector, telecommunication cables and a
750 mm diameter high pressure natural gas pipeline. The carriageways are
6.315 metres wide separated by a 0.57 metre width central barrier; the rail
track is along the north side of the deck. On the main bridge, electrical
interconnector pylons are positioned on brackets cantilevered from the north
side of the deck. Telecommunication ducts run through the box girder deck and
the gas pipeline is under the south cantilever of the box section. The bridge
has been built by Hyundai Engineering and Construction (Korea) as a
'design and build' contract. TY Lin Assoc. of San Francisco carried out the design as a
sub-contractor for Hyundai. The approach roads were constructed by Samwhan
Corporation (Korea).
Considering the fact that the
width of the main channel does not exceed 3.5 km, and after making
allowances for floods, a bridge length of 5 km was considered adequate. In
October 1995, one year after the start of physical work of the bridge, a bridge
length of 4.8 km, instead of a flood-width of the river at 14 km, was
finalised. This narrowing was essential to keep the overall project cost within
economic viability. It has, however, required considerable river training work
to keep the river under the bridge.
Specifications
To withstand predicted scourge
and possible earthquakes, the bridge is supported on 80-85 meter long and 2.5
meter and 3.15 meter diameter steel piles, which were driven by powerful
(240-tonne) hydraulic hammer. The superstructure of the bridge is pre-cast
segments erected by the balanced cantilever method. Basic features of the
bridge are length (main part) 4.8 km; width 18.5 metre; spans 49; deck
segments 1263; piles 121; piers 50; road lanes 4; dual-gauge railway (broad
gauge and metre gauge).
Sub-structure
The bridge is supported on
tubular steel piles, approximately 80 metres in length, driven into the river
bed. Sand was removed from within the piles by airlifting and replaced with concrete.
Out of the 50 piers, 21 piers are supported on groups of three piles (each of
2.5 m diameter) and 29 piers on groups of two piles (each of 3.15 diameter).
The driving of 121 piles started on October 15, 1995 and was completed in July
1996.
The pier stems are founded on
concrete pilecaps, whose shells were precast and infilled with in-situ reinforced
concrete. The reinforced concrete pier stems support pierheads which contain bearings
and seismic devices. These allow movement of the deck under normal loading
conditions but lock in the event of an earthquake to limit overall seismic
loads through the structure and minimise damage.
Superstructure
The main bridge deck is a
multi-span precast prestressed concrete segmental structure, constructed by the
balanced cantilever method. Each cantilever has 12 segments (each 4 m long),
joined to a pierhead unit (2 m long) at each pier and by an in-situ stitch at
mid span. The deck is internally prestressed and of single box section. The
depth of the box varies between 6.5 metres at the piers to 3.25 metres at
mid-span. An expansion joint is provided every 7 spans by means of a hinge
segment at approximately quarter span. The segments were precast and erected
using a two-span erection gantry.
Gauge
The Jamuna bridge carries broad
gauge and metre gauge rail tracks. It also carries pylons for a powerline.
Litigation
Within a decade of inauguration,
cracks were detected on the bridge prompting the authorities to impose limits
on the number of vehicles allowed to cross at any given time. By early 2008,
the government announced its intention to sue the South Korean conglomerate Hyundai
for flawed design.
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