Chumpathang bridge will be completed this week
Infrastructure: Chumpathang bridge in Ugyentse, Samtse
will be opened for traffic by the end of this week.
The launching of the bailey bridge, that
connects Ugyentse and Norbugang, was completed on February 11.
The Department of Roads (DoR) engineering team
took four days to complete this task. DoR’s executive engineer in Samtse, Sonam
N Wangdi said they worked long hours to complete the launching.
“Engineers from the regional DoR’s office in
Phuentsholing also came,” the engineer said.
The 120-foot Chum- pathang bailey bridge
collapsed in November 2016 due to overloading. A jumbo truck with a load of 36
tonnes had tried to drive over the bridge which had a maximum capacity of only
18 tonnes.
Executive engineer Sonam N Wangdi said that the
hardest part of the construction is complete and that only decking remains,
which will not take time.
To complete the project within this week, Sonam
N Wangdi also said that they will have two groups working on either side.
As the bridge caters to students in summer, it
was crucial that the bridge was constructed before the onset of summer. The gup
of Ugyentse had also shared his concerns with Kuensel.
Meanwhile, it has been learned that the owner of
the truck which caused the bridge to collapse has still not paid DoR. The
trucker had approached the Prime Minister for certain payment considerations
before agreeing to pay DoR. The case has been forwarded to the Ministry of
Works and Human Settlement.
DoR had estimated that Nu 1.1 million (M) would
be required to re-establish this bridge. As some of the material from the
collapsed bridge could still be reused, expenditure was incurred only to
replace damaged materials and for the launching procedure.
Meanwhile, the two 80-foot bailey bridges over
the Buduney river in Samtse that collapsed due to heavy rain in July 2016 will
not be reconstructed.
Executive engineer Sonam N Wangdi said that it
is yet to be decided if a box culvert will be constructed.
However, DoR has started dredging works to
divert the river to its original course. DoR officials said that the river that
washed away the bridges in Buduney was supposed to flow a different course.
When the department had tried to divert the
river to its original course, the people opposed the diversion fearing
landslides on the original course.
There were three adjoining bridges of the same
capacity over the river and two were washed away when the river got swollen
last summer.
These bridges connect nine gewogs with the
Samtse dzongkhag administration
