Bhoiguda Metro ROB is spot on

The steel structure was constructed over six existing railway tracks

L&T Metro Rail Hyderabad has completed the second steel bridge on the other side of Secunderabad station at Bhoiguda as part of corridor-II.

Hyderabad Metro Rail Ltd MD N.V. S Reddy has announced the completion of the work on Bhoiguda metro Road Over Bridge (ROB) of corridor-II. As the location of the bridge was at a narrow and congested underpass, the Boiguda ROB has been designed as a wide steel bridge with a width of 64 ft, a length of 221 ft and a height of 40 ft to erect the bridge.

Inside the box bridge, a composite deck slab made of steel and reinforced cement concrete was laid to accommodate the two metro rail tracks. These reinforcements were necessary for the bridge because the metro tracks sharply curve left over the existing Bhoiguda Road Under Bridge (RUB), here.

The steel bridge, manufactured in a factory in Ghaziabad, was dismantled and brought in special carriers to the Old Gandhi Hospital premises in Monda market, Secunderabad, before it was reassembled piece by piece using high strength steel plates and 51,000 imported high strength friction grip bolts. The launching operation was, however, completed in less than six hours during which Indian railways blocked operation of trains.

The Bhoiguda ROB construction was difficult in many ways, said Metro Rail officials. “To assemble the steel girders with high precision and to tighten the friction grip bolts at a height of 40 ft, highly skilled personnel capable of working at such heights were selected. Also, it was difficult to manoeuvre high capacity cranes within a very restricted area to erect each member of the steel bridge,” explained Mr. Reddy in a media announcement.

The ROB was also constructed above six existing railway tracks, located right at the exit of Secunderabad station that operates trains throughout the day.

The presence of live high tension wires just a few feet below the launching operations was a difficult hurdle the metro officials had to overcome.

Lauding the successful and safe completion of Bhoiguda Metro ROB as yet another engineering wonder, Mr. Reddy congratulated the team of L&T Metro Rail project engineers led by K. M. Rao and M. Y. Kondalu.