The Bhotekoshi tragedy reminds us that infrastructure planning based exclusively on historical experience may no longer be sufficient
Nepal's development story is inseparable from its transport infrastructure. Roads and bridges connect communities, open access to markets and public services, support tourism and trade, and increasingly link the country with regional economic corridors. Yet, while the visual appearance and architectural form of a bridge naturally attract public attention, its safety and longevity depend fundamentally on what lies beneath it. A bridge is only as reliable as its foundation.
It is against this background that the third edition of Pile Foundation for Bridges by Er. Tanuk Lal Yadav, former Secretary to the Government of Nepal, deserves attention. The book is not merely another engineering textbook. It represents an important contribution to Nepal's technical literature at a time when the country is constructing bridges across some of the world's most challenging geological, hydraulic, and climatic environments.
One of the most important features of the publication is its distinctly practical and Nepal-oriented character. Much of the engineering literature available to students and professionals is necessarily based on international experience. The fundamental principles of soil mechanics, structural engineering, and foundation design are universal, but their application cannot be separated from local conditions. Nepal's steep terrain, complex geology, active seismicity, unstable slopes, rapidly changing river morphology, intense floods, and difficult construction environments demand engineering judgment that goes beyond the mechanical application of standard formulae or computer software.
The third edition attempts to address precisely this gap between theory and field practice. It takes the reader through the broad life cycle of bridge foundation engineering – from planning and engineering investigations and study to geotechnical and structural design, pile load testing, construction, quality assurance, and subsequently inspection, maintenance, and rehabilitation.
This life-cycle perspective is particularly relevant to Nepal today. The country has expanded its road and bridge network considerably, but the challenge is no longer simply to construct more infrastructure. The equally important task is to ensure that existing assets remain safe, functional, and economical throughout their intended service life. The National Transport Policy, 2026 places considerable emphasis on quality, standards, planned maintenance, asset management, climate resilience, research, and evidence-based decision-making. In that sense, the philosophy underlying Yadav's third edition is remarkably consistent with the direction of the current national transport policy.
A particularly valuable feature of the new edition is discussion on case studies of global and national bridge failures. A bridge failure can reveal weaknesses in investigation, design assumptions, hydraulic assessment, foundation depth, scour estimation, construction quality, supervision or maintenance. Studying such failures converts painful experience into professional knowledge.
This is especially significant in Nepal, where rivers can change rapidly during floods and where foundation conditions can vary considerably over relatively short distances. A technically sound design based on inadequate site investigation can therefore become unsafe in practice. Similarly, a structure that satisfies design calculations at the time of construction may become vulnerable if river morphology, scour, slope stability or environmental conditions subsequently change.
The failure case studies included in the third edition therefore encourage engineers to ask a more fundamental question: Why did the failure occur, and what should the profession do differently next time?
The importance of this approach has become even clearer in the face of recent Himalayan disasters and increasing climate uncertainty. The tragedy reported from the Bhotekoshi corridor has highlighted the vulnerability of settlements, highways, bridges, hydropower installations, and cross-border infrastructure to extreme mountain hazards. Such events remind us that infrastructure planning based exclusively on historical experience may no longer be sufficient. Climate change, changing hydrological behaviour, glacier-related hazards, landslides, and cascading disasters require a new generation of resilient engineering practice.
In this respect, the book's emphasis on investigation, foundation behaviour, scour, construction quality, inspection, and failure analysis is not confined to the design of individual bridge foundations. It points towards a broader national requirement: Nepal must progressively develop its own body of engineering knowledge based on its own terrain, climate, materials, construction practices and infrastructure experience.
The book also has an important educational dimension. Its reported adoption as a reference text for Bachelor's-level bridge engineering education at the Institute of Engineering, Tribhuvan University, is a welcome development.
Nepal has historically generated considerable engineering experience through major road, bridge, hydropower, and infrastructure projects, but much of this experience remains dispersed among individual projects, consultants, contractors, government agencies, and academic institutions.
The proposed concept of a Transport Research Board Nepal (TRBN) headed by the Director General of the Department of Roads (DOR) is relevant in this context. The two-tier arrangement, with TRBN providing strategic research governance, and the Quality, Research, and Development Centre of the DOR serving as the operational research, training, and technical platform, seeks to establish a continuous cycle from field problems to research, standards, and practice. Research areas should include, but not to be limited to, design discharge and foundation scour, river morphology, geotechnical hazards, climate resilience, road alignment, bridges and hydraulic structures, asset management, construction materials, and forensic investigation.
Dhakal is former Director General, Department of Roads
