The abrupt river erosion of the Padma on Friday night has hit the bridge construction work since major ready materials went into the river, officials said.
They said 192 railway stringers and over 130 road decks, which were kept at the Munishiganj site's construction yard, were devoured by the river during the erosion, making it difficult for the authorities to continue construction work until Tuesday.
Though the contractor has yet to assess the value of the materials fallen into the river, project people estimated the preliminary loss at about Tk 900 million.
"We could not confirm yet how many items submerged would be recovered. So it is hard to assess the loss. But the contractor is now reckoning the losses while an action plan is being worked out after the Friday's incident," said project director Mohammad Shafiqul Islam.
He said the contractor can confirm the damage when water and current of the river recede.
Since all the devoured materials are heavy, project staffers said the chance of flowing into the river is slim. But they said it would be hard to recover all items if the siltation occurs the way it did in 2015.
The Padma Multipurpose Bridge project, which is among the fast-track projects, experienced similar erosion at its Mawa site in 2015 when siltation was measured as high as 15 metres.
Apart from railway stringers and road decks, some other valuable materials also went into the river bed, which led to the slowing of the construction work of the country's longest bridge, throwing its opening to traffic by June next year into fresh uncertainty, feared project people.
Though officials said the work at the Mawa site continued, the bridge contractor has halted span installation work since June when the river water continued to swell along with strong current.
The contractor could manage to place only road slab and railway track over part of the 6.15 kilometre bridge, of which 4.5 km has been visible after the placement of 31 spans out of 41.
The items that went into the rise were supposed to be placed over the visible part.
But people familiar with the situation alleged though an alert
was issued on the possible erosion at the construction sites, the contractor did not take measures to move the items elsewhere.
The project director, however, refuted the allegation, saying the survey is conducted on a regular basis to understand the nature of river erosion.
He said after the erosion and turbulent river current disrupted ferry services on the Shimulia-Kathalbari route, a special survey was also conducted as a precautionary measure.
"We have yet to find any explanation of why the sudden erosion hit the construction yard," the project head told the FE over phone.
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