IABSE-JSCE Joint Conference on Advances in Bridge Engineering-II
Background
 
 
The flood plains of the Ganges, the Brahmaputra, and the Meghna cover approximately 40% of the total geopolitical area of Bangladesh. The Ganges builds up, by far the largest area of this Indo-Bangla delta. The Ganges, the Brahmaputra-Jamuna, the Surma-Meghna and the Padma and their numerous tributaries and distributaries are the arteries of the drainage system for the country. In such a geological formation, the construction and maintenance of an uninterrupted road-rail network across the country posed to be the biggest challenge for the civil engineers, even more for the bridge engineers. Soon after independence of this land from British India in 1947 and emergence of Bangladesh from Pakistan in 1971, the engineers passed through various phases of transfer of technology and authority in designing, constructing and maintaining numerous medium and short span bridges of Bangladesh in the continual change of techno-economic scenarios. The construction of the longest bridge (4.8 km) of the country over the mighty Jamuna was abandoned as the feasibility study by JICA in 1976 judged the project to be nonviable both technically and economically. The advancement of Bangladesh economy and the world knowledge on bridge engineering made it feasible subsequently when the Bongobondhu Jamuna Multipurpose Bridge was constructed and finally opened to road and rail traffic on 23rd June 1998. Now, Bangladesh is going to start construction of even a longer bridge over the Padma and also to have her first cable-stayed bridge over the Karnaphuly very soon. To alleviate the traffic congestion of Dhaka and Chittagong Cities, the design and construction proposals of a number of flyovers and underpasses are now at the design desk. Our engineers are quite ambitious to complete these works during next five years. Once completed, the bridge network will be important not only for the economy of Bangladesh but also for the region. We hope this will remove the technological hindrance of crossing the Himalaya to access east and the west of Asia and open further surface corridor towards the Europe.

 

 
IABSE-JSCE Joint Conference on Advances in Bridge Engineering-II
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