‘We now have the courage to take on more mega projects’

Working on the Padma Bridge project has increased the productivity of local engineers, who have acquired useful planning, management, and implementation skills; Bangladesh can use this knowledge to carry out future large-scale projects, Project Director of the Padma Multipurpose Bridge, Shafiqul Islam told The Business Post’s Ashif Islam Shaon in an exclusive interview

As project director, how do you feel now that the Padma Bridge is finally complete? What were the major challenges the team faced?

It was an extremely critical task that few people could fathom. In the field of civil engineering, this is one of the most important pieces of work. Bangladesh has shown bravery, and we are proud of our accomplishment.

Undertaking the Padma Bridge project was a daunting task as the river character’s changed with the change of season.

The river has a current of four metres per second. During the monsoon season, 60-62 metres of soil wash away from the river bed every year. The water displacement is also massive—150,000 cubic metres per second—putting enormous pressure on the piers.

Furthermore, large water vessels that pass under the bridge may lose control due to the strong river current and collide with the bridge pillars, making river training more difficult. Aside from that, we had to make this structure earthquake-resistant.

With all of these challenges in mind, designing and constructing this bridge was a mammoth task.

If you were asked to rate the performance of the construction firms that were engaged with the project—both foreign and local—what would your assessment be?

Our team, the local team of engineers, was excellent; some of them were exceptional.

The expert panel led by the late Prof Dr Jamilur Reza Choudhury was excellent. I should also mention Klaus Henrik Ostenfield of the panel, who is an expert consultant on Design Development for Long Span Bridges with new technologies from Denmark, and Prof Dr Kenji Ishihara, Geotechnical Engineering and Professor, University of Tokyo, Japan. Dr Kenji Ishihara is a living legend in his field.

All of the members of the panel of experts were the best in their field. In the consultation experts’ panel, we had experts from more than ten countries.

We picked experts from all over the world to contribute on a full-time or part-time basis. Whenever any critical situation arrives, we take their expert opinion.

Local experts and engineers have gained a unique experience in this project. How do you think this experience will help us in the future when we work on a large project?

Definitely, this project has boosted our efficiency. But in the future mega projects—if you say about the second Padma Bridge the government is talking about—all expert hands cannot be picked from local resources. Even a developed country like the US hires foreign experts. Expertise is actually shared between countries. True, we will hire more local engineers and experts for future projects. The most important thing is that we now have a high level of confidence in our ability to take on large projects and properly implement them with our own management.

If you see, China is a big country and they are implementing huge projects in their country. They can buy or make big equipment and use it in their projects. So, we will need to rent big equipment in the future as well. For example, we brought a hammer from a German company that has been in business for more than a hundred years. We don’t have local contractors for larger projects either, but that doesn’t matter. We can do mega projects jointly.

Thousands of engineers, both foreign and local, worked on the project. Have you ever had any issues coordinating with them?

Not at all. I remember that American Ambassador Earl R Miller once visited the project area in 2019. He expressed his admiration for the smooth collaboration between people from different countries on the project. This is an example of effective management working with people who speak different languages, have different cultures, and come from different backgrounds. We had opposing viewpoints, but we eventually came to an agreement and got to work.

Have you ever run into funding issues or gotten tangled up in bureaucratic red tape while working on the project?

One of the exceptional things about this project was the uninterrupted flow of funds. In my 40-year career, I’ve worked on a lot of projects and seen a lot of crises, but this project was unique.

We got quick responses from different departments as well whenever there was a problem. I must say that people showed love for this project. We went to the Chattogram port, Mongla port, and Dhaka airport to receive equipment, but nobody showed non-cooperation. The ports release our equipment as fast as possible.

Even when we needed to bring in a foreign expert on a short notice, we were able to get them instant on-arrival visas. We got unconditional support from every government department.

Would you mind sharing one or two key decisions you had to make during construction?

I would say the change of piling was the biggest decision to make. When we got a soft soil layer under the river unexpectedly, we sought experts’ suggestions. We added extra piling under some pillars and hardened the soil with a mixture of ultra-fine cement and grooved piles at the base of the pillars. No other bridge in history used this type of cement. Some experts warned us not to do that. But we took the challenge and conducted a test and found the result was positive.

How did you get involved with the project?

At the time, I was working for the transport ministry. I was the project director of the Dhaka-Chattogram four-lane project, the biggest project back then.

In October 2011, when I learned that the ministry was looking for a project director for the Padma Bridge, I approached the then communications minister, Syed Abul Hossain, and expressed my interest.

The minister was happy to give me the job. I left the four-lane project and joined the Padma Bridge project in November of that year.

Would you like to share any stories involving the prime minister while working on the project?

Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina spoke highly of our team during one of the meetings. She said that she had never had such a dedicated team while working on other projects in the past. She was very supportive and encouraged us all the way.