The construction of the reinforced concrete arch bridge over Thimchhu connecting Chugo Lam and Dechen Lam below the Royal Academy of Performing Arts is now completed ahead of schedule.
The Dechen-Zam was constructed at a cost of Nu 103 M with the funds from the Government of India and the Royal Government of Bhutan.
“The duration of the project is two years. We started in April 2017 and although we have had the time of completion till this year 2019 September we completed in June 2019 and handed over to MoWHS. In terms of the project construction period we completed ahead of schedule by three months,” said Tandin Dorji, the General Manager of CDCL.
Once open to traffic this 96-meter long bridge is expected to decongest traffic in Thimphu town. The bridge was designed by the Department of Roads and constructed solely by Bhutanese workers including trainees from Vocational and Technical Training Institutes of which 80 per cent are the youths.
The General Manager of the CDCL shared some of the hurdles confronted while carrying out the construction works.
“We had to do a lot of river protection works, site development and on the left bank, we have to do a lot of widening work. In widening works, we cannot carry out conventional blasting because the bridge location is in the vicinity of the city and then there is a lot of traffic and pedestrian. So we had to carry out silent blasting techniques. So that actually was the major problem.”
He said apart from all those hurdles the CDCL managed to complete the project ahead of schedule.
With this CDCL has constructed 24 permanent bridges and 145 bailey bridges across the country.
