The design problem with 14 piers of the country's longest bridge under construction has been resolved reigniting hopes about quickening the work.
Officials said the project office already started working on three of the piers. The work on the remaining 11 would start soon after load test confirmation.
They said two Korean professors were checking the changed designs as recommended to add one pile to each of the piers.
"It will take three to four months to start work on 11 piers, as the designs of those are now being checked by two Korean professors," said Project Director Shafiqul Islam.
Time is needed for conducting the load test for the piers, he added.
The Padma Multipurpose Bridge Project has been progressing at a slow pace since beginning of the construction in 2015, as the authorities could not draw any conclusion from repeated load tests for the 14 piers.
The project office said the people tasked with doing the designs of the piers had earlier been in difficulty with the job, as the soil level was not as stated initially. This technical problem delayed the project work.
Sources close to the Panel of Experts (PoE) said the people concerned were now looking into soil profile and doing other related investigation to confirm the length of the proposed new pile. This will be in addition to the six piles planned earlier for each of these piers to bolster them by distributing the load.
The unfavourable weather, however, made the construction work difficult.
The PoE said construction of the Padma multipurpose bridge itself is a difficult job and different types of problems can arise anytime. With the solution to the problem with piers, one hurdle is overcome only.
China Major Bridge Engineering Co Ltd (CMBEC) has been working for constructing the 6.15-kilometre bridge along with viaducts and a railway line beneath it since it won the job at a cost of Tk 121.33 billion (12,133 crore). The company's offer is, however, Tk 29.61 billion higher than the project's initial cost estimated in 2010.
The Bangladesh Bridge Authority (BBA), the executing agency, revised the cost of the main bridge construction to $1.77 billion (Tk 13,886 crore or Tk 138.86 billion) following the delay of the project by years, as the World Bank backed off from financing it.
The first estimated cost for the two-tier bridge was Tk 91.72 billion. The project office recorded more than 50 per cent progress in the country's important fast-track project with two spans made visible early this year.
Officials said more piers on the Jajira and Mawa sides would be visible soon.
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