THE Sardaryab Gulabad bridge collapse on Sept 8 was sad news. One precious life was lost and two people were injured in the accident.

I am of the opinion that the load of the truck carrying 1,600 cement bags, weighing 88 tonnes, probably surpassed the allowable load limit. This could have been avoided, if there was strict monitoring of traffic at the bridge.

Being a geotechnical engineer by profession, I want to discuss the preservance of this historical bridge which was constructed in 1937 by Braithwaite Burn and Jessop Construction Company. The bridge connected Peshawar with Charsadda and Mardan. However, it was in a dilapidated condition.

The monitoring of dilapidated bridges comes under asset management of infrastructure engineering and must maintain records of daily, weekly or monthly data.

This practice helps to assess the condition of a bridge and eventually plan for repair or rehabilitations. Traffic impact assessment should be carried out to ascertain the traffic flows and future requirements and for building new bridges.

I recommend that the bridge be restored and preserved as a historic asset. It can serve as a potential site for engineering students’ study tours and a spot for tourists.

Gul Hameed Khalil
Doha Qatar

Published in Dawn, September 15th, 2017