Melting Bitumen: RHD asks field offices to give info on roads
The Roads and Highways Department has asked all its field offices to provide information about the roads where bitumen melted due to the ongoing heatwave.
A letter, signed by Shamima Yasmin, executive engineer (quality control division) of RHD, was sent to all executive engineers yesterday, amid reports of bitumen melting on roads at different points.
Shamima told The Daily Star that they are hopeful of getting the information within a day or two.
The field offices were asked to give various information, including names of the affected roads, length, description of the latest repair work, date of completion, and surface temperature, said the letter.
A record 26 days of this month were heatwave days with the country seeing high temperatures of 42 degrees Celsius or more.
In recent days, the surface of roads and highways in several places in Jashore, Chuadanga, Shariatpur, and Savar melted, causing difficulties to motorists.
Transport experts said road surfaces in several districts melted as the bitumen used cannot withstand this extreme heat.
In many cases, sub-standard materials and poor construction work are responsible for the untimely road damage, they said.
RHD authorities, however, said thin layers of bitumen used for temporarily road repairs were probably causing the problem. They are also assessing whether climate change has a massive impact.
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