Close on the heels of experts from IITs and others with proven expertise being roped in to assess the damage sustained by the Palarivattom flyover and to suggest rehabilitation options, contractors and other stakeholders associated with the construction industry have decided to entrust a consultancy firm with the task of conducting an independent study of structural problems and the possible solutions. The president of Kerala Government Contractors’ Association, Varghese Kannampilly, said that the association, Builders’ Association of India (BAI), and Kerala Structural Engineers’Association are on the brink of zeroing in on a firm to carry out the task.
“We would like to have the results of the enquiry this month itself, for further deliberations on how best to rehabilitate the structure. The three organisations would bear the expenses of the study.”
Our objective is to ensure safe rehabilitation of the structure which was built using a new technology, the deck-slab-continuity method. The fiasco would not have occurred if the government departments had done proper vetting of the design and adhered to supervision norms, he said.
Mr. Kannampilly spoke of how the contractors’ association has planned a bank of new technologies in civil engineering, so that they can be studied and executed as per standardised norms. “We took a decision since there is no initiative from government departments concerned to usher in technological changes which are taking place around the world. This has resulted in even senior engineers being in the dark of technological updates. Moreover, structures like bridges and flyovers must have a health-monitoring system, in which experts inspect them at fixed intervals and take preventive action,” he said.
VACB inspection
In the meantime, officials of VACB inspected the flyover on Tuesday as well, as part of the ongoing probe into alleged irregularities which resulted in cracks developing on most of the girders and pier caps. A team of experts from Indian Roads Congress (IRC) too would inspect the structure this week to garner more evidence about what led to such widespread damage within three years of its commissioning.
