Elevated expressway construction: Girder’s pier cap shutter comes off in Savar, falls on container truck

The pier cap shutter of a girder of the under-construction Dhaka-Ashulia Elevated Expressway under construction came off and fell on a container truck on Tuesday (15 April).

The incident took place on the Bypail-bound road of the Nabinagar-Chandra road in the Balibhadra area of ​​Ashulia at around 8:30pm. However, no casualties were reported in the incident.

Shafiqul Islam, project director of the Dhaka-Ashulia Elevated Expressway, claimed that a vehicle lost control in the Balibhadra area at night and first hit the road divider and then the shutter pipe, causing a part of the shutter to come off and fall on the vehicle. 

"The pier cap, which is the part on which the girder is located in the Balibhadra area, was cast before Eid," he told The Business Standard.

"It takes about two days to remove it. The work of removing it was going on. It was partially detached today and the rest was supposed to be detached tomorrow. But in the meantime, this incident happened today," he added.

However, Abdus Salam, warehouse inspector of Dhaka Export Processing Zone (DEPZ) Fire Service, said, "The pillar at that place is surrounded by tin. If a car hits it, it is supposed to hit the part surrounded by tin first. Initially, we did not see anything. Since the tin was intact, it does not seem that the accident occurred due to a car hitting it."

Savar Highway Police Station Officer-in-Charge (OC) Md Saugatul Alam told TBS that the movement of vehicles on the Nabinagar-Chandra road was slightly disrupted due to the incident.

At around 10:00pm, he said, "The truck is in the middle of the road, causing traffic to be slow on both roads. Police and army personnel are at the scene. Work is underway to remove the car from the road."

The elevated expressway authorities say the incident occurred when a vehicle lost control and hit the shutter pipe on which the shutter rests.