The flyover across Bakery Junction, a major component of the City Roads Improvement Project (CRIP), is scheduled to be completed by the end of the month.
Work on the approach roads at both ends is progressing and the last concreting work of the deck slab at Panjappura is expected to be completed this week, clearing the way for the finishing touches. Project managers said the work was advancing on a tight schedule.
Built on 13 concrete piers, the 510-metre-long flyover has an 11-metre-wide carriageway with concrete crash barriers on both sides. The 14-span bridge will be exclusively for vehicles and out of bounds for pedestrians.
Link
Built as a link to the underpass at Palayam, it provides a route across MG Road for vehicles coming from the airport via Chacka, Pettah, Palayam towards Thampanoor.
Work on the flyover that began in August 2005 came to halt in 2006 after the implementing agency threatened to pull out citing delay in land acquisition.
Though the contract was renewed, the construction work was held up several times by the delay in land acquisition, procedural problems and the dispute between the government and the contractors.
The construction of the flyover also saw the State Public Works Department portfolio changing hands five times, from M.K. Muneer to P.J. Joseph, T.U. Kuruvila, Mons Joseph and back to P.J. Joseph.
Landscaping
Except a small area to be used as a parking bay by the Reserve Bank of India (RBI), the area beneath the flyover will be landscaped with plants and lawns to prevent encroachments. The government had earlier agreed to hand over a portion of the land underneath the flyover to the RBI in exchange for the land acquired.
Project engineers said the construction of the approach road at the Panavila end would be taken up only after the work on laying pipes for the Japan International Cooperation Agency-aided water supply project is completed.
The pre-stressing of two slabs at the Panjappura end and the filling up of expansion joints will be completed this week.
“But for the issues over land acquisition and extension of the contract, we could have completed the work in 18 months,” a project supervisor said.
Road widening
Work on widening and redevelopment of major road corridors in the city under CRIP has also picked up.
Construction of medians on the Vellayambalam-Sasthamangalam road is in full swing. Engineers, however, said utility services were yet to shift the exposed cables from the footpaths on either side.
Project officials said the widening of MG Road from Spencer Junction to Overbridge was scheduled to be completed by June 15.
Work on the Attakulangara-Eenchakkal road corridor has picked up and is expected to be completed by May end. The work on the Nandavanam-RBI road is also to be completed in 45 days.
