Nearly a year after it opened to traffic, the additional bridge across the Adyar river at Manapakkam, near MIOT Hospitals, on Mount – Poonamallee Main Road, will soon have LED street lights on the median, as workers of the State Highways Department, which maintains the road, have erected 15 steel-lamp poles there.
The work is expected to be completed in a week.
The installation of street lights on the median of the new bridge comes as a great relief to motorists who use the facility every day, because the widened bridge lacked adequate illumination, a factor that has been contributing significantly to the accidents taking place there.
“The existing street lights found along the bridge largely illuminate only the footpaths. Now, the street lights on the median will cover entire bridge,” says S. Nagarajan, a motorist from Manapakkam.
As per the plan, each steel-lamp pole on the median of the bridge will have a pair of bulbs. Reflectors will also be placed on the median to prevent motorists from crashing into it. Pedestrian crossings are also being provided at both ends of the bridge.
Last year, the bridge was opened without formal inauguration after motorists started to use the facility.
The Rs. 17-crore additional bridge project was started two years ago in 2017 by the State Highways department after assuring the Water Resource Department (WRD) that project would not alter the existing alignment and the width of the river; and the flow of the river would not be affected either. The existing width of the Adyar river below the new flyover is around 120 metres. Simultaneously, the State Highways widened the rest of Mount – Poonamallee Main Road between Nandambakkam and Porur, a distance of around six kilometres, into six-lane road.