Let up in the rains and low traffic movement on account of holidays has helped L&T Metro Rail Hyderabad (L&TMRH) engineers to push the giant steel bridge from its pre-fabricated site towards the Oliphenta Bridge well past the midnight over the weekend.
The 83-metre long, 1,150-tonne steel bridge was originally manufactured in Ghaziabad near Delhi and brought here by road before being fabricated in a one-acre site at Chilkalaguda Crossroads this summer. For about a month, top bridge engineers like K.M. Rao, Imayavaramban along with Project Director M.P. Naidu have been going through the simulation process in minute detail even as the front and rear noses (‘trusses’) were getting ready.
Now, the bridge has been moved for about 150 metres with the help of ‘Hillman’ rollers and a 100-tonne hydraulic jack positioned at the rear end to push the mammoth structure between 11 p.m. and 5 a.m. at 10 metres an hour after obtaining an almost five-hour traffic block of the trains running on the Oliphenta bridge for the first time in its history. By the end of the week, the engineers are hoping to drag the steel bridge to a further 50 ft between the two piers on either side of the Oliphenta Bridge so that the metro viaduct would be crossing it at a double elevation level.
“The bridge is meant to cross the six railway tracks plus three proposed below and also provide height clearance for double decker trains,” points out Hyderabad Metro Rail MD N.V.S. Reddy, keeping a continuous tab on the work in view of the Government’s intent to throw open two sections to the public by November-end - Nagole to Ameerpet (Corridor III - Nagole to Hi-Tec City/Raidurg) and Miyapur to Ameerpet (Corridor I - Miyapur to L.B. Nagar).
“The bridge is a vital link for the project as it connects Secunderabad with Hyderabad. We have been having excellent coordination with the traffic police, South Central Railway and the GHMC,” avers L&TMRH chief engineer (construction) M.Y. Kondalu. The SCR’s divisional operational head Christopher too has been camping at the site.
Closure of the Oliphenta bridge traffic vents has also provided the time and space for the municipal corporation to take up long-pending road and drain repair works.