Noida: Having been on the backburner for various reasons for over a year, the resurfacing of Noida-Greater Noida Expressway will commence next week. The Noida Authority has awarded the Rs 61 crore work order to a private company. This time, the expressway will be overhauled through the hot-in-place recycling technology so that commuters do not feel any bumps while using the six-lane high-speed corridor, officials said.
In fact, the decision to prioritise the resurfacing work was taken at a high-level review meeting on Tuesday, where senior Authority officials went through the status of important infrastructure projects. Aware that the ride over the expressway has been bumpy for the past year and a half, they fixed next Thursday as the deadline to begin work.
“The stretch will be repaired within six months. Traffic will be diverted and work will go on round the clock. Central Road Research Institute (CRRI) has recommended the latest technology to eliminate bumps to Noida Authority,” a senior Authority official told TOI.
The expressway acts as the crucial link for people commuting between Noida and Greater Noida as well as to Aligarh, Mathura and Agra. While a 20km stretch falls under the Noida Authority, the remaining 4km comes under the purview of the Greater Noida Authority. Over the past 18 years, the expressway has been repaired in patches in order to spruce up the damaged stretch. The patch repair jobs have resulted in uneven road level.
“But through hot-in-place recycling, the top layer of the existing road would be extracted first. The extracted material would then be melted and treated with additional aggregate to improve the strength before being used for resurfacing the top again. This way a standard width of the bitumen will be maintained across the stretch. Commuters will not feel any bumps while using the stretch,” said a senior manager.
At the review meet, the Authority officials also examined the status of the other key infrastructure projects. In a positive development, officials were confident of fast-tracking the Bhangel elevated road and throwing it open for commuters in December 2021. “The original deadline to finish the project was December 22. Despite pandemic-induced limitations, we have been able to execute more than 50% of the work on the project,” said general manager Rajiv Tyagi.
During the review, the Authority officials also issued a warning to CRRI for not being able to provide solutions to decongest three important arterial routes in the city. The institute was given a mandate to improve traffic conditions between sectors 62 and 63 via road number 6, suggest measures for decongesting Dadri road and bring down congestion in the old sectors by improving engineering of Master Plan 1 road.