Title - DMRC makes light work of a massive girder

Thirty minutes. That is all it took for the Delhi Metro Rail Corporation to haul up and fix a girder weighing 45 tonnes into the rails on lane one of the Ernakulam North overbridge on Thursday.“The preparatory works for launching the girder took about two hours since the outriggers of the two cranes had to be strategically placed. The aim was to ensure that the girder was launched with clockwork precision, since there would be problems if the girder changed its direction by even an inch,” sources associated with the work said.The pending works include the launch of another 45-tonne steel girder on lane four and a smaller one over the adjacent footpath, on the northern side. The DMRC has promised that lanes one and four of the Ernakulam North overbridge will be ready by mid-November. A concrete slab will be placed over the girder within a week, following which crash barriers will be installed on either side of the two lanes. “A similar steel girder on lane four will be placed on Saturday. Once a girder over the foot overbridge is placed, the bridge can be opened to vehicles and pedestrians,” they said. This apart, the bridge’s approach roads have to be tarred.

Service roads
The bridge will have service roads and underpasses on either side. Vehicles will be allowed only in one direction. The bridge’s arm on the north-western side splits into two, with one arm leading to Kaloor and the other to the Ernakulam Town railway station.

A few cents of land will be acquired from the fuel bunk at Lissie Junction, so that commuters from SRM Road can access the junction. Those who want to enter the road can either use the underpass or reach there through Manappattiparambu Road.

A big bus shelter having a frontage of about 30 metres will be built in front of the Town Hall. The DMRC will not axe the two big trees on the acquired eight cents of land.

A neighbourhood trader said opening the two new lanes of the bridge would be of little use till the Town Hall-Madhava Pharmacy Junction stretch was widened to four lanes. The Revenue Department has promised to take possession of the land within a month and hand it over to the DMRC for widening.

The existing bridge (at the centre) will be pulled down within a fortnight of the two new lanes of the bridge being commissioned. “The piling work to rebuild lanes two and three will begin by December-end. The metro-rail’s pillars will pass through the bridge’s centre. The four-lane bridge having metro pillars will be commissioned by September 2013.

Salim Rajan overbridge

Over 90 per cent of the work on the Salim Rajan overbridge is over and the DMRC intends to commission it by January 2013. This will provide commuters with an alternative to the Ernakulam South and the Pullepady overbridges.

The widening of the bridge’s approach road on the KSRTC bus station side and the Rajaji Road is pending. Commuters using the bridge will have to face traffic of KSRTC buses and other vehicles along the narrow road. The Hotel Abad Plaza junction on M.G. Road too will have to be widened to cater to the additional inflow of vehicles.  Sources in Kochi Metro Rail Ltd. said necessary land would be acquired after fixing the compensation amount. “The State Level Expert Committee has to approve the rate,” one of them said.