Traffic flow was interrupted for about half an hour on Deputy Mayor Kabalamurthy Salai in Chintadripet on Wednesday after construction material leaked from a Metro site and overflowed on to the road.
Two tunnel boring machines (TBMs), used in the construction of tunnels to connect the underground stations on the network, are currently stationed at May Day Park and employed in tunnelling from Anna Salai to Gemini.
“Around 1 p.m. while the TBM work was in progress, foam which is usually sprayed on the front portion of a TBM at high pressure leaked because the soil in that area was loose and could not take the pressure. This is not unusual and is bound to occur when there is an unchartered borewell or if the soil is loose,” said an official of Chennai Metro Rail Limited (CMRL).
The area was soon after cleaned by workers and a metal lid was placed on the opening. However, the incident affected traffic flow in the area for a while as the cleaning process was on, sources said.
This is not the first time Metro Rail construction materials have leaked out to the surface. Just last month, foam used in the Metro Rail construction on the Washermanpet-Mannady stretch flowed out from a borewell inside the compound of a house near Mannady. But officials said that the incident occurred as the owner of the house had not declared the presence of the borewell, and also stated that the goods inside the house were not damaged.
Similarly, in January, another construction material, grout entered a shop near the Seven Wells area due to the Metro Rail work on the same stretch. However, unlike the previous incident, several goods inside the shop were damaged by the grout.
