The Western Railway (WR) will for the first time use carbon fibre laminate to strengthen rail overbridges (ROB) across its suburban section.
After the pedestrian section of Gokhale Bridge in Andheri collapsed last year, a joint inspection of all ROBs and foot overbridges (FOBs) on the suburban section of WR was carried out, which was headed by experts from the Indian Institute of Technology Bombay. The inspection suggest that repairs be conducted on a few key bridges within a time frame of three months to a year.
A key hurdle that officials faced while strengthening the bridges was to not add to the existing load borne by the pillars. Carbon fibre laminates are much lighter than traditional metals and five times stronger and durable than steel. “Carbon laminate is the ideal material for our requirement as it achieved the twin objective of less weight and higher strength,” Ravinder Bhakar, chief public relations officer, WR, said.
During the inspections, 29 ROBs and 115 FOBs in the suburban section between Churchgate — Virar, were inspected. WR has received the audit reports of 23 ROBs, which have recommended health monitoring for five British era bridges — Ferere ROB near Charni Road, Belasis ROB near Mumbai Central, Mahalaxmi ROB, Carol ROB near Prabhadevi and Tilak ROB near Dadar.
The report also recommended repairs to concrete ROBs built in the 1970s and 1980s. In the next three months, WR will be using the carbon laminate material to strengthen those at Dharavi, Andheri and Malad. “As these overhead structures provide an important transport link between east and west side of suburbs, our aim will be to conduct repairs causing least disruption to the services provided by them. Therefore, these repairs are being carried out in phased manner, during nights when there is no traffic,” Mr. Bhakar said.