Recently, the setting of the main steel girder on the Padma Bridge in Bangladesh, which is being constructed by China Railway Group, has been successfully completed.
The "Bridge of Dreams" in Bangladesh is one step closer to the opening to traffic. The Padma River that traverses Dhaka, the capital of Bangladesh, supports thousands of people along the route, but it also severely hinders exchanges and development between the two river sides.
In order to realize the dream of “a bridge flying north and south, with the sky becomes a thoroughfare” in Bangladesh, the China Railway Construction Group utilized special technology and equipment made in China.
The Padma Bridge is 7.7 kilometres in length and is a double-decker road-rail bridge with a two-way, four-lane, highway on the upper level and a single-track railway on the lower level. It is the most unique and difficult bridge project in the global geological environment, and is the largest single bridge project constructed by a Chinese company in a foreign country, which is also an important transportation hub project of the "Belt and Road" initiative.
Bangladesh has a subtropical monsoon climate with a maximum temperature of about 48℃ in summer. The strong convective wind season is from March to May, and the rainy season is from June to September. As such strong convective weather and flood disasters occur frequently in the region. In addition, the geological environment of the Padma River is complex with hurricanes, floods, and navigation channels and these unfavourable conditions put forward higher requirements and challenges for the construction project’s efficiency, pile quality, equipment stability, accuracy and corrosion resistance of the two SR285 rotary drilling rigs deployed in the bridge pile foundation construction.
Before the China Railway Fourth Bureau purchased the SANY rotary drilling rig, SANY Heavy Machinery Overseas Sales Company organized a professional construction method team to conduct a detailed analysis of the geological report, provided by the project department. The team then provided the customers with equipment, drilling tools and methods configuration according to the construction project’s requirements to ensure the drilling capability of the equipment and efficiency.
Through a later on-site construction verification, the SANY rotary drilling rig has not only successfully passed high-standard inspections by the international supervision team, composed of experts from the United States, South Korea, Holland, France and other countries including the Bangladeshi military, but also withstood the harsh conditions such as high temperature grilling and rain erosion.
The SANY drilling rig has become the main force behind the project’s construction schedule. Due to the tight schedule and heavy tasks of the project, SANY rotary drilling rigs had to keep running 24 hours per day. In order to fully ensure the consistent progress of the project, SANY dispatched service technicians to stand by 24 hours a day to provide on-site services as needed.
The person in charge of the project gave high praise and said: "SANY rotary drilling rig is highly reliable, efficient, stable, with strong ability in rock drilling. The professional after-sales service team keeps the equipment running efficiently."