While the commuters fret and fume over the traffic restrictions put in place for faster progress of metro rail construction, the L&T Metro Rail Hyderabad (L&TMRH) has been going about its business in a brisk manner by completing yet another flyover crossing, a few days ago.
Crossing the Greenlands flyover on a double elevation curve is as challenging as building the metro viaduct over the railway lines/railway bridges, as it is being built in the heart of the city with round-the-clock traffic and heavy duty cranes having to manoeuvre the stiff deadlines and restricted timings.
Obligatory main span crossing the flyover at 19 metres (62 ft) from the ground is 65 metres (213 ft) with the other two spans on either side being 39.5 metres (130 ft) and 32.5 metres (107 ft), respectively, according to metro rail engineers.
The segments were put in place using the traditional launching girder method from the top in about 15 days.
Oliphenta Bridge work
In the meantime, the L&TMRH engineers have moved the 83 metres-long mammoth steel bridge by 20 metres a few days ago and another 30 metres on the weekend. The initial movement was to provide space for building the rear nose ‘truss’ of 35 metres length, as the balancing front nose ‘truss’ of 45 metres length was ready. These two connected with high tensile cable wire, jacks and rollers affixed under the bottom girders of the bridge facilitate the movement.
The 1,150-tonne steel bridge, usually built by the railways over water bodies, would be moved by about 200 metres to be positioned above the Oliphenta Railway Bridge at a double elevation level or 18.8 metres (62 ft) to facilitate the movement of double-decker trains.
While the traffic police have already notified closure of the bridge for vehicles from Monday, the rail traffic too would be halted for a couple of hours over a period of few midnights in single or double blocks when the bridge is moved atop, later this month.
“Perhaps, never in the Oliphenta Bridge history was traffic stopped on roads or the movement of trains halted, but we have to do it for safety reasons,” said L&TMRH Chief Engineer (Construction) M.Y. Kondalu.