Rejoinder, our reply

The Roads and Highways Department has issued a rejoinder on a report headlined “4-Lane Dhaka-Chittagong Highway: Up for mending all too soon” published in The Daily Star on April 7.

We publish a summerised version (unedited) of the rejoinder with our reply.

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Upgrading the 2-lane Dhaka-Chittagong Highway into 4-lane started in 2010 and was inaugurated by Prime minister in July, 2016, spending Tk 3440 crore. Newly constructed 2-lanes were opened to traffic immediately after construction in various segments starting from 2013 to 2016 to withstand the immense traffic volume. So, major portion of the new road has been carrying traffic for over four years. The old 2-lane was treated with a surface course of 50mm and profile correction.

The road was designed for 10 years life so that it can sustains 98 million equivalent standard cumulative axle loads (ESAL). But a survey conducted in October 2015 found much higher 305 million ESAL. After that project's consultant reported 98 Million ESAL would be exhausted within 3 to 4 years of opening road to traffic. The determined vehicle damage factor (VDF) for heavy and medium trucks were 15.59 and 19.27, higher than the set guideline of 4.62 and 4.8 respectively which was due to the heavily overloaded trucks. The magnitude of overloading is so high that it leads to pavement distress and failure of pavement structure much earlier than the design life. This caused early rutting and tearing of the uppermost layer. Based on the analysis, the consultant recommended for immediate measures including axle load control and immediate periodic maintenance to save the constructed pavement.

There was a panel of expert for necessary directives on technical issues during entire construction period that checked different segments of project road, and quality of construction and materials, including bitumen. They identified the overload too as significant factor to affect design life and rutting of the highway. So, it is not correct as stated in the report that experts were not engaged to determine the causes of the ruts. As recommended by supervision consultant and panel of experts, the Ministry of Road Transport and Bridges took necessary initiatives for maintenance work on the road immediately after its opening and overload control. So, the information on project cost and bitumen are not correct.

OUR REPLY

The rejoinder justified damages on the highway and the subsequent maintenance works flatly blaming overloading but it carefully avoided telling why the authorities could not stop plying of overloading vehicles. A weight measuring scale was set up at Sitakunda in 2012 to check overloading but vehicles with extra tonnes of goods kept running. The ministry claimed steps were taken to control overloading but is silent about how vehicles crossed the weighbridge with extra load, damaging the expanded highway. Mobile courts on several occasions also fined overloaded vehicles on the highway. The ministry recently sent a proposal to the Planning Commission seeking Tk 940 crore for maintenance of the highway where it mentioned ruts developed on the highway because of overloading. It went for the maintenance project to save the highway, which could have been done by checking overloading. It is not also clear from the rejoinder as to why the ministry did not design the road, considering the fact that overloading would continue.

The rejoinder mentioned that experts checked quality of construction and the materials, including bitumen during construction phase. However, The Daily Star story pointed out that the same was necessary after the ruts developed on the highway to determine its cause.

During a round visit on the highway, The Daily Star reporter found the highway is in good shape at many points, meaning overloading had no impact there. The ministry has no explanation how this can happen on the same road.

We stand by our report.