Padma Multipurpose Bridge Project

Wave protectionUnderwater slope protectionConstruction of falling apronMajor Negative Impacts43. The following major negative impacts will occur due to the implementation of the RTW: Traffic safety and risk during material transportation Surface water quality, Dredged material, Drainage, Vegetation, Fisheries, Charland, and Landuse.44. Traffic Safety and Risk in Material Transportation: Procuring and delivering materials to site willbe a major item in the RTW construction, particularly the supply of rock. The effort and cost ofdelivering rock to site depend primarily on the source locations. The rock for the Jamuna Bridge RTWcame mainly by land from India (Pakur area), with a minor part by sea from India (Visakhapatnam)and Indonesia (Karimun). Rock procurement was one of the largest cost items, involving both rockfrom suppliers who delivered by truck or train from the Pakur area in India, and rock transported bythe RTW contractor from overseas. Including mobilization and investment, the total cost of rock supplyamounted to nearly 30% of the total RTW cost.45. The experience from Jamuna Bridge requires careful review and is summarized as follows: The rock supply by truck/train for Jamuna Bridge RTW was seriously hampered during thefirst flood season (1995) due to flooding and unusable roads/bridges in India. All large Indiancompanies failed to set up a proper rock supply system, continuous direction/assistance fromthe contractor’s staff was required. The initial poor state of the Bangladesh railway system was another limiting factor. It wascooperatively taken away. The customs or security forces sometimes closed the border for India-Bangladeshnegotiations. The supply by truck/train was regularly interrupted both in India and in Bangladesh by politicalstrikes (“hartals”) as well as by religious festivals. The overseas rock transport experienced teething trouble with the transshipment pontoon,which was built by a supplier. Once a barge was “lost” in open sea due to tug problems and it took quite some effort to findher back. Weather delays occurred from time to time, including the influence of two cyclones, onegrounding a rock barge and survey vessel at Chandpur (May 1995), the other shifting oneabandoned empty barge from the Chittagong mooring area and grounding her along themouth of the Feni river (May 1997), fortunately after the critical rock supply period. The slope protection part of the RTW contract realized a loss because the “minimum exportprices” for rock were declared by the Government of India.46. In general rock transport by truck is not recommended because of the substantial damage, whichit will unavoidably cause to the roads in rural India/Bangladesh, most of which were not designed forsuch heavy loads (taking into account bad commercial habits of overloading the trucks). In addition,the rock size requires mechanical handling, which makes loading and unloading more difficult in eachtransfer point. The nearest railway terminal is on the south bank of the Ganges near theJamuna/Padma confluence. This link is suitable for rock supply from the Pakur area, but then requiresriver transport to the bridge location. The better way would be to haul rock by barges from as close tothe Indian border as possible (near Rajshahi). This may require occasional dredging along Ganges inthe dry season causing more environmental hazards. River transport by barges requires thecontractor to set up a Global Positioning System (GPS) to track barge movements along the river andto ensure their efficient use. The contractor should be encouraged to use rock barges (but not7-16