Faulty expansion joint plagues Electronics City expressway

The elevated expressway has turned an accident-prone zone

January 27, 2017 11:59 pm | Updated January 28, 2017 01:53 am IST - Bengaluru:

Mind your riding on the Electronics City Elevated Expressway especially if visibility is low. K.R. Suresh (name changed) learnt it the hard way. Last week, a biker rammed his scooter the front wheel got stuck between an expansion joint, causing a serial accident.

“I saw another biker fall after his bike’s front wheel got stuck in the expansion joint. Inquiries revealed that he was the fourth biker to have a fall accident that morning. It has turned into an accident-prone zone,” Mr. Suresh said.

The expansion joint, technically called elastometric joint, essentially has rubber between two median-like blocks, installed to act as a cushion for the expansion and contraction of the asphalt surface owing to weather conditions. Over multiple cycles of expansion and contraction, the vertically-placed expansion joint on the expressway has developed a gap large enough for wheels of bikes to get stuck, leading to multiple non-fatal accidents. Suhas N., a techie, said during foggy mornings, the visibility is very low and multiple accidents occur near the lay-bay.

“It all depends on the vehicle behind you, when your bike’s wheel is stuck. Usually, most vehicles are speeding on the expressway. If there is a bus speeding behind you, it may turn really fatal,” Mr. Suhas said.

Capt. Baldev Singh, of Bangalore Elevated Tollway Ltd., conceded that multiple accidents were reported near the lay-bay, especially during rains. “We have put up temporary barricades to prevent bikers from going into the lay-bay, but they still do. We are working on replacing the expansion joint,” he said.

Replacing expansion joints

In most of the flyovers constructed by the BBMP and BDA, the expansion joints are placed horizontally slicing the roadway, which even in the event of expansion would not lead to a situation like at Electronics City Elevated Expressway. However, the expansion joints need to be placed vertically in the direction of the traffic flow near lay-bays, and at diversions on flyovers.

K.T. Nagaraj, chief engineer, BBMP projects, said flyovers were re-asphalted and most expansion joints replaced in a recent drive. “Some of the expansion joints on Sirsi Circle flyover had widened, so we replaced them,” he said.

0 / 0
Sign in to unlock member-only benefits!
  • Access 10 free stories every month
  • Save stories to read later
  • Access to comment on every story
  • Sign-up/manage your newsletter subscriptions with a single click
  • Get notified by email for early access to discounts & offers on our products
Sign in

Comments

Comments have to be in English, and in full sentences. They cannot be abusive or personal. Please abide by our community guidelines for posting your comments.

We have migrated to a new commenting platform. If you are already a registered user of The Hindu and logged in, you may continue to engage with our articles. If you do not have an account please register and login to post comments. Users can access their older comments by logging into their accounts on Vuukle.