Even as the long-overdue repair works over the potholed Palarivattom flyover began on Thursday, traffic along the National Highway Bypass was thrown out of gear during peak hours.
Vehicles along the bypass are being diverted through the three-lane service roads on both sides. Traffic police personnel have been posted at the U-turns in front of Oberon Mall and Ernakulam Medical Centre (EMC) to streamline the flow of vehicles from Palarivattom to Kakkanad and in the opposite direction, since vehicles have been banned beneath the bridge. The arrangement will continue till May-end, when the flyover is expected to be reopened to vehicles.
On Thursday, heavy traffic snarls were reported at both the U-turns, due to more than usual number of vehicles. This gave rise to the demand that repair works be confined to a two-lane flyover portion at a time, so that only traffic in one direction is affected. Another demand is to ban parking on service roads so that they can be used for to-and-fro movement of light vehicles, three and two wheelers.
Excavators have been deployed to scoop out the flyover’s tarred portion. This work will be completed by Friday morning, following which a layer of mastic asphalt will be done. It will then be topped with a bituminous concrete layer. It would then be followed by replacement of the bridge’s expansion joints, said an engineer of RBDCK who is overseeing the work.
The deck-slab-continuity joints on the surface will be replaced with strip-seal joints. As per the estimate, the repair works to be completed in 30 days.
The contracting firm which built the flyover in 2016, RDS Constructions, is engaged in executing the repair works at its expense as the structure was ridden with potholes within the defect-liability period of one year of it being opened to traffic. The firm will also replace the expansion joints.
The RBDCK officials said adoption of an ‘innovative’ technique to reduce the number of expansion joints did not work as well as expected. It is in this circumstance that the joints are being replaced. The blame rested partly with KITCO, the consultant of the flyover project, they said.
Responding to alleged omissions on its part, a senior KITCO official said inadequate binding between the flyover’s concrete layer and the tarred surface resulted in the tarred portion giving away at many places. The flyover’s surface would not have suffered such damage had the RBDCK scooped out the tarred area, resurfaced it and replaced expansion joints as soon as undulations surfaced. It waited for one study report after another, during the course of which precious time was lost and the potholes worsened, even causing accidents, he said. “Even now, the RBDCK has waited till the eleventh hour to begin repair works. Summer showers have intensified and the monsoon is around the corner.”
Referring to cracks reported on half a dozen pier caps of the flyover, the official said they were so far within permissible limits.
