Metro Yamuna bridge, designed from home

NEW DELHI: Do you find working from home challenging? Now, imagine brainstorming, planning and finalising the design and construction details of a 560m cantilever bridge over a river with fewer than usual pillars and spans as long 80m, while sitting in your home.
That’s exactly what Delhi Metro Rail Corporation (DMRC) engineers did when they couldn’t meet each other in person due to the pandemic, but had to plan and finalise the Metro’s fifth and only cantilever bridge over the Yamuma. The DMRC has even commenced preliminary work on the bridge, coming up on the Majlis Park–Maujpur corridor of Delhi Metro’s Phase IV project.
“The design of the bridge was finalised using the ‘Building Information Modelling’ (BIM) technology. A 3D model was uploaded with intricate details of the proposed structure,” said Anuj Dayal, executive director (corporate communication), DMRC.
“For the finalisation of the Phase IV designs, DMRC’s engineers are using the BIM platform, through which they have been able to finalise the designs even during the days of the pandemic when physical meetings weren’t possible,” he said.
This bridge will come up between two existing bridges on Yamuna - Wazirabad Bridge and the Signature Bridge. The cantilever construction will provide support to the longer than usual spans of the bridge, requiring less pillars on the Yamuna riverbed and causing minimal hindrance to the river’s flow.
When construction work of Delhi Metro’s Phase IV finally kicked off on December 30, 2019, it was already three years too late and just when DMRC started working on a war footing, the country’s battle with Covid-19 started.
While construction came to a halt during lockdown, DMRC’s officials got busy completing preparatory work for the project so that it could hit the ground running when restrictions were lifted. DMRC’s engineers, architects, designers and contractors continued to work from home and in the background to ensure they are completely prepared when lockdown ends and construction site work resumes. This is exactly what happened when construction work was allowed to start with manpower available at site as part of unlock.
Engineers, architects and designers working on the Phase IV project coordinated with site personnel, design consultants and contractors to finalise all the designs for the ensuing construction work. One of the most sophisticated and intricate of these projects was the Yamuna bridge.
BIM technology not only allowed designs, drawings and 3D models to be uploaded online but officers could also leave comments and observations through the same software. Video conferencing was used to take the more crucial decisions taken by project directors after discussions with architects, engineers, contractors etc. DMRC’s ‘contract cell’ also worked on various issues such as sending queries to bidders, replying to their queries etc. on ongoing tenders online.