The Bruhat Bangalore Mahanagara Palike (BBMP) is having another shot at replacing the expansion joints on the Sirsi Circle flyover and the 15-year-old flyover will be partially closed to traffic.
According to senior officials of the BBMP, all the 14 joints will be replaced with finger-type joints at a cost of Rs. 2.65 crore. Replacement of each joint will require at least five days, it is said.
Traffic jam
With the flyover wing leading to Mysore Road off limits for motorists, there was a huge traffic pile up on the wing leading to Chamarajpet and Royan Circle. Confused commuters claimed to have no prior information about the traffic diversion. They blamed the BBMP and traffic police for the poor timing and not informing the public about the diversion at least a week in advance.
With the diversion in place, a Rajahamsa bus of the Karnataka State Road Transport Corporation found it difficult to negotiate the narrow turning towards Chamarajpet. The traffic police also failed to apprise the commuters at the entrance of the flyover, near Town Hall.
BBMP officials claimed that the work of replacement is being taken up in phases to ensure that commuters are not inconvenienced.
The replacement of joints has been long-pending. It may be recalled that the BBMP had floated tenders for it seven times since 2005.
The tender has now been given to Kolkata-based Sanfield India Ltd. The former Mayor Sharadamma had participated in the ground breaking ceremony for the joint replacement work in September 2011. The work was to be taken up in October the same year. However, it was taken up in March 2012 and the flyover was partially closed. While the BBMP initially wanted to incorporate finger-type joints, the project consultant — Civil Aid Techno Pvt. Ltd. — disagreed and wanted modular joints. Due to the disagreement, the repairs were not taken up and the flyover reopened to traffic once again.
