རྩོམ་རྗོད་ཚིག་བདུན་མ། - ༣

ནགས་ཚལ་སྒོ་ཁམས་ཡངས་པའི་ནང་།

དགུན་དུས་འཆར་ཆུ་གཞན་མ་འཚུངས།

ས་སྨུག་སྤུབ་པ་གནག་དུང་ནང་།

ཉིན་མའི་འོད་ཟེར་མཐོང་བ་མེད།

ཡོམ་ཡོམ་རླུང་མ་འཕུ་ནི་མེད།

བྱ་དང་བྱིའུ་ཅུང་སྐད་ཡང་མེད།

མེད་གསུམ་འཛོམ་ས་རྟེན་འབྲེལ་ངན།

 

ནགས་ཚལ།

རྩོམ་རྗོད་ཚིག་བདུན་མ། - ༡

ཡིག་ཚང་ཕྱི་ཁ་འཐེན་ཚེ།

མཛེས་པའི་ཁམ་ཤིང་སྟེང་དུ།

རྡོག་མ་བཏགས་ཏེ་ཚོ་ནུག།

ཟ་འདེད་བསྐྱེད་བའི་བསམ་བློ།

གཏང་སྟེ་བཟའ་བ་ཞིམ་སྦེ།

ཡིག་ཚང་དབངཔོ་ངལ་སི་སི།

ཤིང་གི་གནམ་དུ་རླུང་སི་སི།

 

ཁམ་ཤིང་རྡོག་མ།

 

ལམ་སེལ་ལས་ནའི་སྐོར།

This is a poem written in Dzongkha (National Language) as self-dedication to my profession. It is religiously considered that working for any construction, development and improvement of pathways, roads, bridges etc is outstanding merits. Basically, particularly working for any route used for traveling and transportation is meritorious service.

I am sorry for Dzongkha spelling err if any.

ལམ་སེལ་ལས་ན་ཐམས་ཅད་ལ། བྱང་ཆུབ་ལམ་དང་དབྱེ་བ་མེད། དགེ་བ་ཡོད་པའི་ལ་རྣམས་ཀྱི། འགྲོ་བ་ཡོངས་ལ་ཕན་པར་ཤོག།

ལམ་ནི་སེལ་ཡི་སེལ་ཡི་འགྲོ་བའི་ཚེ། ལུས་སྐྱིད་པ་ཡིད་ཡང་བདེ། ལུས་སེམས་གཉིས་ཀུ་སྐྱིད་པའི་ལས་བྱས་པ།བསྐལ་བ་བཟང་བ་སྐྱབས་སུ་ཆེ།

Beautifully blacktopped Phumithang Dratshang road.

འགྲོ་བ་རིག་རྣམས་འགྲོ་བའི་ལམ་འདི་ལས། རྐྱེན་བར་ཆད་མེད་པར་ཤར་ར་ར། འགྲུལ་ལམ་མ་འཐོག་སྨོན་ལམ་འདི་བཏབ་གནས། དགེ་བ་མང་པོ་ལས་ཀྱི་བསག།

ཕར་ཉིན་མ་ཤར་ལས་ཤར་བའི་ཚེ། ལམ་སེལ་ལས་ནའི་སྡུག་བསྔལ་གི། རང་ལས་ན་བལྟ་ལྟོག་འགྲོ་བའི་ཚེ། འདི་ཞིན་གྲུབ་འབྲས་མང་པོ་གྲུབ།

  

ཉིནམ་ནུབ་ཀྱི་ཕྱོགས་སུ་འཛུལ་བའི་ཚེ། དུས་ད་རེས་བཟུམ་མའི་དུས་རྒྱུན་དུ། ཉིན་རིན་ཆེ་མེད་པར་ཕན་པའི་ལ། ལོག་ཡང་ཡང་སྒྲུབས་པའི་སྨོན་ལམ་ཤོག། 

How avoidance of detailed ground study resulted in failure of road infrastructures

As usual, I always begin by thinking whenever I see failure in road infrastructures; road construction in Bhutan has already passed half a century after its inception in the early 1960s. Exactly, at this time, mule tracks and footways are mere history to track back. Roads replaced all those detour tracks for transportation that touches high mountains and deep valleys. Slope failures on those tracks were out of the question since these don’t have one except the natural slope. But the road construction comes with designs that require cut and fill that develop another slope in addition to the natural slope, which is called the "cut and fill slope." The failure mechanism of these slopes must be addressed and learned. Despite engaging in road construction and maintenance for decades, are we enough with the trend? We have many questions to ask and things to do. Let the custodian of the road not bounce from one agency to another.

The Department of Roads, in the 11^th five-year plan and in the beginning of the current plan, Geog Connectivity roads with the department. Planning and budgeting works were mandated for the department. Finally, those roads were handed over to Local Government. Inconsistency in the decision of springing the custodian has left those improved roads further deteriorated and damaged.

We are adequate with road coverage. Every nook and corner of the country is connected. We are done with the length. The length of roads has outnumbered the technology involved. Now, what we need is advancement of technologies with the change.

 

Bailey Bridge subsided under the catastrophic slope failure.

Construction techniques of the road, starting from formation cutting to pavement strengthening, have improved with the advancement and introduction of new machinery and methods. An environment-friendly road construction technique was started in the late years of the 9th five-year plan, and now the time has triggered and reminded us to start preparations to integrate the construction of climate-resilient road infrastructures.  

Indeed, the monsoon has taught us valuable lessons. The change, we see, is through more destruction and damages in road infrastructures than before. We feel the change through roadblocks.

How is it possible to overcome the change, especially the climate change? What are differences in failure we observe between then and now? Are those failures due to climate change or something else?

Pavement or the road fails because of the failure of permanent structures—walls, drains, cross drainages, slopes, etc. Bridges usually fail because of overloading and slope failure. Otherwise, bridge failure due to other reasons is the least that we usually counteract immediately.

Let me explain one simple example—provision of both sides camber on pavement in any category of roads. Our Primary National Highways are wide enough to provide camber on both sides, and so are likely the Secondary National Highways. But is it really possible on Dzongkhag and farm roads? And our standards say that the camber should be on both sides. The standard carriageway width is only 3.5 meters. From my personal experience, there is a constructability issue. Even if there is no constructability issue like in the aforementioned category of highways, providing camber on both sides is unnecessary considering the different nature of soil conditions on downhill slopes. We must avoid infiltration of runoff from the pavement, prevent saturation of the slope, and let the slope fail grossly.

And why do our walls repeatedly fail in the same location?

 

Pavement failure due to excessive infiltration.

Likewise, are our standard design road drainages or cross-drainages adequate? Or do we need to revise?

The evidence of aggravating damages year after year on road infrastructures and restoration works that cost us dearly must be felt by every individual responsible and, indeed, must be felt by the end user as well. Or else we wait for the catastrophe that is looming large before us.

Therefore, road infrastructures designed and constructed decades ago may not suffice for the change now. We may need to revise the design criteria and focus more on slope stability studies. Much more information and awareness about slope engineering are indeed felt necessary in addition to the training provided for construction quality and more effective road asset management.

Blacktopping of Dakpai-Buli-Nimshong GC Road

Dakpai-Buli-Nimshong GC Road starts at Dakpai, 18.00 km on Tingtibi – Zhemgang SNH at an altitude of 1263 m. It traverses through forest touching many villages until Buli (36.60 km), 1698 m. The highest elevation, it passes between Dakpai & Buli is at Talila (18.00 km), 2014 m.

From Buli, the road inclines up through randomly dense forest till Gonglithang (5.10 km), 2154 m. The road further inclines up through the continuously dense forest & crosses Malaya top (10.50 km) at an altitude of 2626 m. The road, then declines down until Rongdigang (19.60 km), 1833 m and incline bit up with four short zigs. Further it traverses straight until Churmulung (25.50 km), 1937 m and then decline down till Nimshong (30.20 km), 1740 m.

The road, Dakpai-Buli was constructed in early years of ninth fifth year plan and Buli-Nimshong road was constructed in later years of 10^th fifth year plan.

 

Blacktopping work in progress at Nimshong

From the above alignment description of the road, it is clear that the road stretch from Dakpai to Buli (36.60 km) passes through uniform elevation variation. Whereas, the road stretch from Buli crosses the highest elevation variation. Due to high elevation and dense forest cover along Gonglithang until Rongdigang, the road corridor and the pavement in particular receive less sun, leaving the road stretch marshy and damp throughout the year.

Although major sections of the road have been blacktopped, it is observed deterioration of wearing coarse in the form of potholes; alligator cracks, depression distress, shoving etc. At certain stretch, the gross failures of pavement are observed.

Due to more damp and marshy locations, almost 2.40 km of road beyond Malaya towards Nimshong were left without blacktopping.

 

Road stretch through dense jungle beyond Malaya

To forgo the blacktopping of marshy sections, discussion were held in various meetings and even in Department’s Quarterly meeting and resolute the same.

That’s why, certain stretch along Buli to Nimshong GC (2.40 km out of 30.20 km target) road was not blacktopped. Nonetheless, estimates for the remaining pavement improvement works have been prepared inclusive of cross drainage and road drainage for the betterment of smooth road along the high elevation ranges. 

I generously regret the inconveniences caused to the public of Upper Kheng, UK.

Financial Year 2016 - 2017

The road history of Upper Kheng (UK) is in making. The most controversial GC road construction in the history of Department of Roads has been completed. Formation cutting of additional length of 1.24km to the newly proposed Gewog Centre is yet to complete with trace cutting already reached its termination point. Formation cutting of Bardo Gewog centre road (Therang - Khomshar GC road) will be completed within this financial year 2016 -2017. Trace cutting has already been terminated at the Gewog centre. 

 

Beautiful Khomshar before road construction

Survey work for the new road that will connect Khomshar under Zhemgang and Wama under Mongar Dzongkhag is underway with Lingmithang regional office undertaking the feasibility survey until Ngomila. The road construction activity is in 12th fifth year plan. The road will connect Central and Eastern Dzongkhag. 

Construction completion of GC roads has welcomed many farm roads under Shingkhar and Bardo Gewogs. Within 2015 -2016 financial year, two farm roads to Radhi and Thrisa village with 7.10 km and 9.17km respectively started its construction. Another two farm roads to Changkhar and Thajong is yet to start. 

Bardo Gewog's farm roads to Phulabi and Dratshang (Gonpa) awaits trace cutting of GC road to reach Gewog centre, since all takeoff points of the farm roads are from Gewog centre road. Factually, UK's development mode is on. 

 

Thrisa Farm road takeoff from GC road

With Chamkharchu Hydropower soon to start, roads condition and people's lives will be drastically improved. 

Nimshong Sub-division office is mandated for management and administration of road projects of UK. It has blacktopping and maintenance of Buli - Nimshong (30.2km) and Phumithang Dratshang road (3.35km), formation cutting of Shingkhar and Bardo GC roads works at hand. 

Budget proposal for the fiscal year 2016 - 2017 amounting to roughly Nu. 150.00 million was farsighted move. Among various proposed improvement activities of GC roads, budget for construction of only three Bailey bridges were approved with RGoB financing. 

Government has pledged and prioritized blacktopping of all Gewog centre roads within 2018. Within these two financial years period, Shingkhar GC and Bardo GC road till Bardo contemplate to complete. The total GC roads to blacktop lengthen to 59.06km after completion of Therang - Khomshar GC road. 

Therefore, as per the fiscal budget approval and work plan accordingly, I wish for timely release of the budget and timely completion of work. 

Bird

The Dove

Walking lone silent on the highway befits a solitary smile.

Perch on the seeming rotten branch,

I see the dove.

For that intricate pattern of beauty, what I call,

The stunning dove. 

For your serenity to the adjust of lens onto your beauty, what I call,

The honest.

The praise for the lost shot of thy flapping wings makes me wonder,

My leisureliness. 

Update from Zhemgang

No information was gathered. I was sitting alone on the bench outside my new little home. The sun was bright above, and it was noon. The branches of the peach tree are green. I felt mild afternoon fresh air blowing gently. I could hear a sharp chirping sound. I looked above. I could see nothing but the dancing of those fresh green leaves, and the chirp was continuous. Gently I turned around. There I saw, on the fencing of my friend's home, a little bird. You are beautiful! Beautiful enough!!!  Still no information garnered! 

The Desktop Background

The passion and desire to be a talented photographer come with challenges and frustrations. Photographing those moving objects is much more exasperating. I was hunting for the best to capture and save it as my screen background on my laptop. Finally, I was able to capture a photo that I consider good, and I hope to add more excellent images to my collection in the future.

Zhemgang is rooted in jungles. These jungles house millions of beautiful flora, fauna, animals, birds, and creatures. Loitering and leisure in that seemingly mundane world are the best. I love to live and see those beautiful, lively aromas of nature surrounding me. Yes, I hold a deep affection for Zhemgang, and I am dedicated to serving the residents of remote villages in Upper Kheng. 

A beautiful butterfly sit on the golden flower

Never knew that time to capture

Yet blind I am to see faith and fate. 

The Desktop background