Bangabandhu tunnel construction going on in full swing

[bluesky]

Bangabandhu tunnel construction going on in full swing

Now the work on Bangabandhu tunnel is in full swing. If the construction work proceeds at this same pace, it will be finished within the scheduled time, that is December, 2022

en.prothomalo.com

Bangabandhu tunnel construction going on in full swing
Sujan Ghose
Chattogram
Published: 22 Jun 2021, 01:36

The construction work of Bangabandhu tunnel under the Karnaphuli river is proceeding in full swing. The photo was taken from the Patenga end of the tunnel on 20 June 2021Jewel Shill
The construction of Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman Tunnel (BSMRT) under the Karnaphuli river is going on in full swing as two hurdles have already been resolved, officials have said.
The coronavirus transmission and the land acquisition were the two major problems at the beginning of the construction work.
If the construction work proceeds at the current pace, it will be finished within the scheduled time, that is December, 2022. And then it will be opened for vehicular movement, the officials concerned hope.

Advertisement

The Chattogram city end of the underwater tunnel has started near Patenga Naval Academy.
Excavation of the first tube, which started from this end, started on 2 August 2020. Excavation of the tube from the Anwara end of the river started on 12 December the same year.
The tunnel will start from the city end and will run through the middle of the boundary between Kafko and CUFL to connect with Anwara end of the Karnaphuli river. A “one city two town system” will be set up in Chattogram following the Shanghai model in China.
The first ever underwater tunnel of the country is named after Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman. The estimated cost of this project is Tk 103.74 billion (10,374 crore). There is a possibility of the country’s GDP to be increased by 0.17 per cent once the project is completed.
Advertisement

Harunur Rashid Chowdhury, director of the tunnel project, told Prothom Alo that there were complications due to the pandemic and land acquisition at the beginning. However, the problem is solved now. Therefore, the authorities concerned are expecting to open the tunnel for vehicular movement within the next 18 months.
The length of the main tunnel is 3.32 kilometres. The length of each tube of the tunnel is 2.45 kilometres and the diameter is 10.8 metres. The tunnel will contain four lanes altogether, two in each tube.
There will be 5.35 kilometres of linking roads connecting the main tunnel at the western and eastern ends. Besides, a 727-metre over bridge will be constructed.

Prime minister Sheikh Hasina made a pledge to construct this tunnel during an election campaign before the general election in 2008. The initiatives for the construction of this tunnel began after the Awami League had come to power.
The engineers concerned say the bridges authority, the China Communication Construction Company Limited (CCCCL) and Ove Arup & Partners Hong Kong Limited jointly conducted a survey on the engineering of the tunnel and the finance in 2012.
Later during prime minister Sheikh Hasina’s visit to China in June 2014, the two countries signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) on the basis of the G2G agreement. It was the Chinese government that chose CCCCL for the construction of the tunnel. On 30 June that year, the bridges authority and CCCCL signed a trade deal.
According to the officials concerned, the work on the construction of an economic zone, a deep sea port and a power plant are also going in the area between the southern banks of Karnaphuli and Cox’s Bazar.
All of these constructions are based on the construction of the tunnel. Everyone is waiting to enjoy the multiple advantages of the tunnel. The tunnel will also boost the tourism sector of Chattogram and Cox’s Bazar.
Once the tunnel is open for vehicular movement, Chattogram-bound vehicles would not need to go through the main city. People would be able to reach their destination quickly through the tunnel via Chattogram’s outer ring road. Subsequently it will decrease the pressure of vehicles in the Chattogram city.
Advertisement

Progress of the project
Till now, the biggest progress is the completion of the excavation of one of the two tubes in the tunnel and the road construction has already started in that tunnel. As of last May, 788 metres of roadways have been constructed. The excavation of the second tube is ongoing. So far, excavation of 1,610 metres has been completed.
Apart from these, the construction of a flood gate at the Patenga end of the tunnel has been completed. The two linking roads are also under construction. And the construction of the 727-metre bridge also progressed a lot.
According to the monthly progress report of the project, as of May this year, the physical progress of the project is 75 per cent.
The progress of the project was hampered by the coronavirus pandemic, said the engineers concerned. The project progressed by only 15 per cent in the time between 26 March 2020 and April 2021.
Engineers affiliated with the project said the project was greatly hampered by the pandemic as the construction company is Chinese. Besides, different sorts of construction materials are also brought from China and the supply was affected by the coronavirus. After the emergence of coronavirus in the country, construction work was conducted on a limited scale. However, the project did not progress much amid the first lockdown.
Of the major works of the project, the construction work of the linking road is going on. And some 362.32 acres of land has already been acquired. The total requirement is 382.8 acres of land. The rest of the land is also in the process of rapid acquisition.

 

[xyxmt]

another Bangabandhu!!

 

[bluesky]

The length of the main tunnel is 3.32 kilometres. The length of each tube of the tunnel is 2.45 kilometres and the diameter is 10.8 metres. The tunnel will contain four lanes altogether, two in each tube.
There will be 5.35 kilometres of linking roads connecting the main tunnel at the western and eastern ends. Besides, a 727-metre overbridge will be constructed.

Bold part: For the first time I am now sure that there will be two tunnels and four lanes. So far, the information was unclear because our journalists love to write in Banglish instead of English.

 

[Anubis]

Bold part: For the first time I am now sure that there will be two tunnels and four lanes. So far, the information was unclear because our journalists love to write in Banglish instead of English.

Did you hear anything about Padma being the last major bridge that'll be built...apparently they'll keep building tunnels from now on...I though I read something like this but can't find it now.

 

[Michael Corleone]

another Bangabandhu!!

This is long bangabandhu

Did you hear anything about Padma being the last major bridge that'll be built...apparently they'll keep building tunnels from now on...I though I read something like this but can't find it now.

Tunnels cost more though no?

 

[Bilal9]

Did you hear anything about Padma being the last major bridge that'll be built...apparently they'll keep building tunnels from now on...I though I read something like this but can't find it now.

They are thinking about a tunnel underneath the Buriganga to Jinjira.

At first I thought this idea was something like "made in Jinjira" but then I saw that they were indeed serious.

BTW, work is about to begin on the Jamuna Railway bridge, don't know if you'd call that a major bridge.

They might still cancel it, like they cancelled the Payra 'deep sea port' plan.

Tunnels cost more though no?

This is kinda like the question, how long is a piece of string. It depends.

Short answer is usually more costly, but may be necessary because of marine traffic needs instead of a bridge in some cases. Here is an answer from Quora, which explains it well.

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------


Jesper Hansen, Dane

Answered 4 years ago · Author has 800 answers and 1.4M answer views

Originally Answered: What is cheaper to build a bridge or a tunnel under water ?

Yes, no , maybe can all be the correct answer to your question. There are a lot of other issues that plays into deciding what type of crossing should be made.

Ships traffic, storms, earth quakes, temperature fluctuations, water depth, infrastructure connections, aesthetics, awe inspiring behemoth, geology, environmental, vulnerability, (terror, war, accidents), ……
The list just goes on and on.

So lets take a practical example from my city Aalborg in Denmark.

On the left is a train bridge, in the middle is a road bridge, and to the right there is a tunnel linking the freeway system. The tunnel is by far the newest of the three.

The reason why a tunnel is the better option is pretty clear several times a day.

The train bridge is from 1936 and is actually a reused bridge from a different city. It is currently closed, as it has yet again been rammed by a sizable ship. This happens from time to time as the middle section is a 400 ton pivoting module that allows +10000 ships passage every year.

The bridge is 400 meter long and allows passage to 29 meter wide ships. When the opening mechanism works it is usually operated about 12–15 times a day. If ships can not pass, they face a 525 kilometer detour.

The road bridge is from 1933 and is a bit taller. This means it has to open the gates and block road traffic less often. But when that coincides with rush hour the queue can extend for kilometers.

When the Freeway system was build in the 1960’s the decision to make a tunnel solution was made, and we got a 582 meter long immersed tunnel. It can also be closed, as there has in the past been trouble with the membranes keeping the water out and corrosion to the metal in the concrete.

When the tunnel is suddenly closed because of accidents, cars will pile up for several kilometers along the freeway system, as the city road traffic net is not purposely built for the extra traffic load. A 2 minutes crossing can take hours.

So traffic concerns were the main cause for building a tunnel. Practicality beats money in many construction projects.

 

[bluesky]

BTW, work is about to begin on the Jamuna Railway bridge, don't know if you'd call that a major bridge.

They might still cancel it, like they cancelled the Payra 'deep sea port' plan.

JICA has funded much of the works involving site selection, surveying, preliminary drawings, etc. of the Jamuna railway bridge project. JICA may feel it is not an emergency project because the present Jamuna Bridge is capable of carrying the few trains that pass over the side of that bridge. So, JICA may not cancel this project. But I am not sure of Hasina Bibi.

Payra was the brainchild of Hasina Bibi. And the country spent quite an amount of dollar money on excavation works for nothing.

BD is a one-man show.

 

[Bilal9]

JICA has funded much of the works involving site selection, surveying, preliminary drawings, etc. of the Jamuna railway bridge project. JICA may feel it is not an emergency project because the present Jamuna Bridge is capable of carrying the few trains that pass over the side of that bridge. So, JICA may not cancel this project. But I am not sure of Hasina Bibi.

Payra was the brainchild of Hasina Bibi. And the country spent quite an amount of dollar money on excavation works for nothing.

BD is a one-man show.

Absolutely right. I hear the experts warned Hasina that Payra draft was too shallow and dredging it with the dredging contractor on ongoing basis was going to be too expensive in the long run. At least they finally cancelled it. They will only use the existing port for coal operations from now on I guess.

 

[Anubis]

This is long bangabandhu

Tunnels cost more though no?

They do...but apparently they don't harm rivers as much as bridges...given the nature of our rivers that carry a lot of silt that gets deposited near the pillars.
Found it.


We don’t want to construct bridges on big rivers like the Padma and Jamuna,” Planning Minister MA Mannan told an event at the FIVDB Audtiroium in Sunamganj on Thursday.

“Bridges damage environment as they cause sediment to settle and fill the rivers,” he said.



https://bdnews24.com/economy/2019/1...r-tunnels-instead-of-bridges-after-karnaphuli

@Bilal9 @bluesky @Michael Corleone

 

[El Sidd]

Modern navigational techniques are quite inadequate in Bangladesh.

A self driving Tesla will commit autocide trying to figure out which Bongabandhu tunnel, lane, Avenue, boulevard, street, canal or alley.

For the sake of science do throw in some Tagore or Gandhi in the mix.

another Bangabandhu!!

is your wifi Bhutto71?

another Bangabandhu!!

or Benazir07?

 

[Bilal9]

Modern navigational techniques are quite inadequate in Bangladesh.

A self driving Tesla will commit autocide trying to figure out which Bongabandhu tunnel, lane, Avenue, boulevard, street, canal or alley.

For the sake of science do throw in some Tagore or Gandhi in the mix.


is your wifi Bhutto71?

or Benazir07?

They did import some Teslas locally, but I'm sure the self-drive mode is turned off....

 

[Michael Corleone]

They do...but apparently they don't harm rivers as much as bridges...given the nature of our rivers that carry a lot of silt that gets deposited near the pillars.
Found it.


We don’t want to construct bridges on big rivers like the Padma and Jamuna,” Planning Minister MA Mannan told an event at the FIVDB Audtiroium in Sunamganj on Thursday.

“Bridges damage environment as they cause sediment to settle and fill the rivers,” he said.



https://bdnews24.com/economy/2019/1...r-tunnels-instead-of-bridges-after-karnaphuli

@Bilal9 @bluesky @Michael Corleone

I reckon Padma bridge costed more than a tunnel lol. The river treatment, hammering work delayed the project so much that the factories making those steel structures had to pause a couple of times.
Good though. I would like to drive in a tunnel under a river and check that off my bucket list

 

[Michael Corleone]

They did import some Teslas locally, but I'm sure the self-drive mode is turned off....

Do you think the self drive would work in bd at all?

 

[F-6 enthusiast]

I reckon Padma bridge costed more than a tunnel lol. The river treatment, hammering work delayed the project so much that the factories making those steel structures had to pause a couple of times.
Good though. I would like to drive in a tunnel under a river and check that off my bucket list

According to this guy, it was very hard to put a single pillar because of the riverbed which was not strong enough to bear the weight of the pillars ,so they had to dig deeper. Almost 40 stories deep.

 

[Bilal9]

I reckon Padma bridge costed more than a tunnel lol. The river treatment, hammering work delayed the project so much that the factories making those steel structures had to pause a couple of times.
Good though. I would like to drive in a tunnel under a river and check that off my bucket list

Bangladeshi ministers love tunnels.

If they cost twice as much as bridges, more in their pockets!