The recent flyover collapse in Kolkata has turned the spotlight on the safety of the city’s flyovers, many of which were constructed 20-25 years ago.
The Railway Over-Bridge (ROB) at Begumpet is older than that and needs re-assessment, officials say. “While the ideal life span of a well constructed flyover is 100 years, those in the city were built using inferior quality material, and hence, need to be reviewed from time to time,” says an official under the condition of anonymity.
The GHMC’s Projects wing has completed repairs and renovation works with respect to the Dabeerpura flyover, and is presently working on the one at Lalapet. “Repair of flyovers is laborious work, and needs traffic to be stopped on the stretch. As of now, the total traffic curbs are not in place in Lalapet as we are working on one side of the flyover,” says Chief Engineer (Projects) R. Sreedhar.
The works need mechanical lifting of the spans to change the bearings before placing them back, which needs mandatory traffic restrictions.
One may even gauge the extent of the wear and tear of the structure by a casual look at the gap between the spans. The more the gaps, the higher the need for repairs, another engineer says.
Going by the benchmark, even the Khairatabad flyover appears in need of repairs, as the gap between spans at times is wide enough to cause vehicles to jump.
Admitting that all flyovers over 20 years of age need to be checked for faults, the engineer lists the ones at Basheerbagh, Masab Tank, Secretariat, Khairatabad, Hafizpet (Old), and Narayanguda among those fitting the bill.
Another issue plaguing the city flyovers is the amount of BT dumped on them by way of repeatedly laid roads. A case in point is the Basheerbagh flyover, with the BT road several inches thicker than when it was initially laid.
“New roads are laid over the older ones, without any milling. It has resulted in tonnes of static weight on the flyover even when there are no vehicles on them. We need to do re-carpeting of the roads, after a thorough milling job,” says Chief Engineer (Maintenance) Mohammed Ziauddin.
