The design of the British-built culverts and causeways on the Lalgudi - Perambalur highway has become inadequate for speedy and safe operation of buses. Although the structure of these culverts, built across rivulets criss-crossing paddy fields near Lalgudi and Perambalur are quite strong, the breadth of these culverts is so narrow that bus drivers often find it difficult to negotiate any curve.
Hence, the Highways Department has taken up widening of the Lalgudi-Perambalur highway for smooth and safe operation of heavy vehicles and trucks.
In the first phase, widening of narrow culverts built during the British period has been taken up. “Though narrow, they were very stable and it was difficult to demolish the steel and other raw materials used for the construction,” an official of the Highways Department told
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The widening of the road together with culvert had been taken up at Piralai Vaikkal near Kumulur. The length of the new bridge is 24 metres and its width is 10 metres. Two spans, each 9.40 metre in length, have been constructed. As a large number of heavy vehicles use this stretch, the road is being widened from the original 3.75 metres to seven metres. The work is expected to be completed within six months.
The minor bridge had been designed in such a way that two heavy vehicles can cross it in opposite directions at any time. “The narrow culvert, with a curve on both sides, was an accident-prone zone,” say sources.
The old British-built structures are so strong that they have been a challenge for the Highways authorities to dismantle them. “Even the steel rods are so heavy that we had to press into service earth movers to shift them from the culvert site to a nearby place,” the source said.
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British-built structures are so strong that it has been a challenge for the authorities to dismantle them