Paving in the rain!
It was raining around 12:30pm yesterday. Despite this, a group of workers, equipped with shovels and rakes, was trying to level freshly laid asphalt on TA Road near Ghorapatty intersection in Brahmanbaria town. Next to them two road rollers were moving in different directions to compact the surface.
The incident left many locals and pedestrians puzzled. They even asked the workers to stop but they did not.
Asked about continuing the road repair despite rain, Sohel Ahmed, sub-assistant engineer at the contractor firm, Association of Shahjalal Business System, said, “It's nothing. Everything will be alright once the road rollers compact the asphalt after the rain.”
However, construction experts said asphalt should not be laid on road amid rain. It weakens the asphalt and cracks appear on the roads within a few weeks.
Contacted, Abu Ehtesham Rashed, executive engineer of RHD in Brahmanbaria, said he heard about the incident and ordered the firm to stop working in rain.
Sources in the Roads and Highways Department (RHD) said the 4.5km road was being repaired as part of a Tk 79.55-crore project to build a 496-metre railway overpass in Mourail Rail Gate area. The project began in 2016 with a view to reducing traffic congestion in the town.
Association of Shahjalal Business System was given the job of fixing the road connected to the site of the under-construction overpass.
However, locals said the firm was repairing the important road hastily. It was laying asphalt on the road without fixing its numerous potholes.
They also alleged that low quality construction materials, including cement, were being used in the work.
Ratan Kanti Dutta, general secretary of Brahmanbaria Nagorik Forum, a civil society platform, echoed the locals' view on the matter.
Ehtesham, however, refuted the allegation of using poor quality materials for road repairs.
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