Mumbai's Gokhale bridge opens for vehicular movement

MUMBAI: The GK Gokhale bridge was fully opened for vehicular traffic on Sunday morning. The Western Railway (WR) has completed the construction of walkways on both sides of the bridge and strengthened the girders.
The bridge, which has a cantilevered structure, had protruding 3.5-metre-wide walkways attached to its main deck. The width of the walkways has been reduced from 3.5 metres to two metres, of which only 0.5 metres protrudes outside. The other 1.5 metres has been carved from the main deck itself to reduce stress on the structure.
It took the officials nearly a year to finish the job as work could only be carried out at night to avoid traffic disruption.
Western Railway chief spokesperson, Ravinder Bhakar, said, "After falling of cantilever footpath at South end of Gokhale bridge, a safety audit through IIT Mumbai was undertaken by WR and the major repairs and strengthening works to be undertaken were identified."
The work involved dismantling of 3.3m wide cantilever old slab on both south and north carriage way, replacement of corroded steel brackets supporting slab, casting new slab and crash barrier and providing stainless steel fencing. While carrying out repairs, special care was taken in respect of durability of structure by choice of materials like using stainless steel which is corrosion resistant and design detailing like reduced cantilever, rich concrete mix and lesser inaccessible parts making inspections easier, he stated.
The cost of the work was Rs. 3.34 crore.