Since almost a week motorists using the thoroughfares around the Siddhartha junction in the city have been facing stumbling blocks from the debris and the barricades mounted in the middle of the roads to safeguard freshly fixed manholes of the drainage system.
The Polyclinic Road, ITI College Road and the 5 route refurbished last year before Krishna Pushkarams with tens of crores of rupees were dug up for the second time a week ago, only to unearth the manholes that were buried under the blacktop conveniently by the engineers concerned. Earlier, several months after the roads were refurbished, some of the manholes had been recovered and fixed to the road level putting the life and the limbs of the motorists at risk for a couple of weeks.
Reverse ‘construction’
The situation has recurred as more than a dozen manholes were dug out and aligned to the road level. With this, the ride on pothole-free roads has become only a short-lived experience for commuters contrary to their expectations.
The problem is with the reverse procedure followed by the municipal contractors and engineers at the time of laying roads.
“The concrete manhole opening should be adjusted to the road level before the road is laid. But when the rollers crush the mix, the concrete would break.
To avoid this, the contractor first lays the road and leaves a mark to locate the manhole later. After the road is ready, it would be dug up and the manholes will be fixed so that the cap is perfectly aligned to the road level,” an Executive Engineer of the civic body told The Hindu . “There is no other technology or standard operating procedure to do this properly. However, what is troublesome for motorists is the manholes being fixed after several months of laying the roads,” the official said. The same procedure was followed for all roads including the arterial M.G. Road and Eluru Road.
On the other hand, the lack of coordination between the wings concerned is also said to be a reason behind the adoption of wrong procedure.
Meanwhile, many manholes still lie concealed under the blacktops and the civic body may continue fixing them.
