Death traps
Nobody can foresee an impending catastrophe. I feel duty-bound to write this letter in view of the frightening condition of rail and road network in Bangladesh. A very recent incident jolted me to my bones. The bright day light was fading over the sky of Boston as my wife and I were leisurely sipping tea in our son's house at Braintree when the telephone blared and we got the news of the terrible bridge collapse in central Minneapolis in Minnesota. The eight-lane bridge was constructed only forty years ago over the mighty Mississippi river and over two hundred thousand cars crossed the bridge every day. What was more dreadful was that my younger son used to take this route to commute to his office. The time the bridge collapsed ( 6pm) he should have been on the bridge on way back home but with a rare stroke of luck he flew to New Jersey that same morning on a vacationing trip. The twisted steel and huge concrete slabs with vehicles strewn in a rumpled mess as shown on the TV made us chill in horror. Whatever the authorities reported we presume the number of fatality would exceed twenty with umpteen wounded.
It is reported that simple routine repair work was going on two lanes. The real cause of such a major bridge collapse is still unknown and the FBI ruled out sabotage possibilities. My eyes, however, stuck on two revelatory items in the report of The Boston Globe. In 1997, Minnesota Department of Transportation cited problems with the approach spans on both ends of the bridge including 'cracks --- in the cross girder at the end of the approach spans'. In a 2001 report the department softly hinted on fatigue details on the main truss and the floor truss system but concluded saying that no fatigue cracking was expected in 'foreseeable' future and therefore the bridge did not require to be prematurely replaced involving high costs. Such impalpable and sketchy reports on vital issues are common in the developing countries but one cannot help wonder how such a slip-shod and blunt reporting could have been possible in a country like the United States. Undeniably, some structural glitch built up over years finally reached a critical mass to abruptly erupt in a hellfire to tear down the concrete Minneapolis edifice though the authorities were not absolutely unaware of the deteriorating process.
Looking back to my own country I simply shudder thinking of the thousands of road and railway bridges and culverts most of which are technically unfit for use or creaking ominously demanding immediate repair and renovation. Millions of innocent people are using these bridges in good faith not knowing when and how the catastrophe will strike. A few years ago the much vaunted Rajdhani Express of the Indian Railway plunged into the river as the dilapidated bridge could no longer hold the thundering monster. Our age-old ramshackle Hardinge, Boral, Bhairab and numerous other rail and road bridges and culverts lie exposed to terrible mishaps. The authorities prefer to depend more on providence than reality while bridge management culture in our transportation sector continues to descend from bad to worse. Keeping the urgency of the situation in view, the government should prepare both long and short term plans to take up bridge maintenance and renovation issues on a priority basis in order to avert colossal human tragedies in future. Adequate funds have to be placed for the purpose and schemes firmly implemented. The eternal plea of budgetary constraints and bureaucratic failures cannot be a rational alternative to the loss of human life and property.
For all latest news, follow The Daily Star's Google News channel. 
Related News
NHRC response to The Daily Star editorial
25 April 2024, 05:00 AM
Letters to the Editor
Destruction of Hargazi Canal
24 April 2024, 08:18 AM
Letters to the Editor
Trapped in a never-ending scroll?
31 December 2023, 13:37 PM
Letters to the Editor
When will the government learn from past dengue outbreaks?
22 August 2023, 03:00 AM
Letters to the Editor
Install fire-escape facilities in every building
17 August 2023, 20:03 PM
Letters to the Editor
Comments