The 13th span of the Padma Bridge is ready to be installed on the 14th and 15th pillars of the bridge.
Deputy Assistant Engineer of the Padma Bridge Project Humayun Kabir said that Span 3B will be installed at the Mawa point on Friday (May 24).
He said the span will be transported from the Mawa construction yard, on Friday morning, by the Tiyan E crane – that can bear up to 3,600 tons.
This is the 13th span to be installed, including the two temporary spans which have also been placed on the bridge.
With this installation, a total of 1,950 meters of the bridge will be visible. However, due to the spans being placed at different modules, the visible parts seem separate, rather than in a row.
According Padma Bridge Project authority sources, the date for placing the 3B span has changed a few times as the Padma Bridge authorities were behind schedule due to a navigability crisis on the river and because the authorities had been unable to set up lifting hangers at pillar 14.
A total of 41 spans—each 150-metres-long—will be placed on the 42 pillars of the 6.15 kilometre bridge.
The Padma Multipurpose Bridge started becoming visible with the installation of 150-metre first span on pillars 37 and 38 on Sept 30, 2017.
Later, the second, third, fourth and fifth spans were installed on pillars 38-39, 39-40, and 40-41 respectively in 2018.
Work on the country's largest bridge started in December 2015.