Traffic will be disrupted on the Overbridge-Pazhavangady stretch of M.G. Road from the second week of June with a section of the road being barricaded for taking up the 40-metre obligatory span of the Melepazhavangady flyover.
From June 10, only two lanes (6.5 m) will be available on each side of the carriageway for traffic. This will lead to chaos at East Fort, the nerve centre of city bus operations.
The effect of the partial closure will be felt on the arterial road as there is no alternative corridor to divert the traffic. Moreover, more vehicles will enter the city after schools and colleges reopen. The Assembly session will begin on June 9.
A 15-metre-long and two-metre-wide pedestrian tunnel will be created on both sides of the road where the obligatory span will come up for safe movement of pedestrians. The tunnel, to be made through staging framework lined with plywood, will be well lit and have eight cameras to make it women-friendly and check anti-social activities.
Work under wayThiruvananthapuram Road Development Company Ltd. (TRDCL), the concessionaire of the 42-km City Road Improvement Project (CRIP), has intimated the start of the work to the Kerala Road Fund Board, the city police, and the District Collector.
TRDCL Managing Director Anil Kumar Pandala told The Hindu that the construction of the obligatory span across the arterial road to link the Power House and the Thakaraparambu roads, scheduled to be completed in 150 days, was behind by 18 days. The span will be completed by September 4.
“The delay in handing over the land has badly hit the work. The location for pier 4 on the Sreekanteswaram side is yet to be handed over,” he said.
The Rs.37-crore flyover will have 12 spans — five of 25 m, six of 30 m, and one of 40 m.
According to TRDCL, 88 per cent work on the piles and 77 per cent each on the pile caps, pier, and pier cap had been completed. Only 40 per cent of the deck slab (super structure) has been completed.
