The Road Over-Bridge (ROB), constructed across the railway track on the Krishnagiri-Ranipet Road in Vaniyambadi between the Vaniyambadi and Kethandapatti railway stations at a cost of Rs. 19.54 crore, has been thrown open to the public.
This ROB has helped in decongesting the traffic in the vicinity of the railway level crossing no. 82 and facilitating free movement of traffic near Chettiyappanur on the outskirts of Vaniyambadi.
Work on the bridge undertaken by the State Highways (Projects Division), Vellore, commenced in October 2012.
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The 587.28-metre-long bridge comprising 559.275 metres of the State Highways portion and 28.005 metres of the railway portion has 20 piers.
Vellore Collector R. Nanthagopal, who inspected the bridge along with Ravichandran, Divisional Engineer, State Highways (Projects Division), on Thursday said that while the ROB has been completed and thrown open to public, the footpath along the bridge would be completed before the end of March 2015.
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The ROB, which is being constructed across the railway level crossing between Tirupattur and Pachal near Velakkalnatham at a cost of Rs. 23.45 crore would also be completed by March this year, he said.
Another ROB which is in progress in the Vellore district is the one being constructed in lieu of the level crossing no. 69 near the Valathur railway yard on the Ulli-Kakkathoppu Road at a cost of Rs. 13.20 crore under the railway works programme for the year 2007-08 on a 50:50 cost sharing basis by the Railways and the State Highways (Projects Division).
The deck slab casting work of the railway portion of the bridge is in progress. The trestle portion (the portion of the bridge between the railway portion of the bridge and the approach road) has to be completed by the State Highways (Projects Division). The total length of the bridge is 723.810 metres comprising 685.95m of highways portion, 495m of trestle portion and 37.862m of railways portion, while the width of the bridge if 8.50m (without footpath). The width of the footpath is 1.50m on either side.
A road underbridge (RUB) is being constructed at a cost of Rs. 11.38 crore in lieu of level crossing no. 66 near the railway yard between Melalathur and Valathur railway stations.
A party of presspersons who were taken to the sites of the various works saw that while the railway portion, forming 48.219m of the 357.757-m-long RUB has been completed, work is in progress on the State Highways portion constituting a length of 309.538m. The length of the approach roads under construction is 148m on the Gudiyatham side and 148m on the Melalathur side. The State Highways is undertaking ‘grouting’ on its portion of the underbridge in order to fill the voids in the cement concrete structure to prevent upward seepage of groundwater during the rainy season.
The Collector who inspected the works said that all the ongoing works would be completed and the ROBs and RUB put to public use before the end of March 2015.