Mumbai: The Mumbai civic body is planning to open CD Barfiwala flyover in Andheri to vehicular traffic from July 1 as it has completed the parallel alignment with Gokhale bridge.
The Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) had drawn flak over the alignment mismatch which came to light earlier this year when the north arm of the Gokhale brigade was opened for motorists.
The BMC on Wednesday stated that it had successfully completed the very challenging task of lifting the Barfiwala flyover and aligning it parallel to the Gopalkrishna Gokhale bridge using hydraulic jacks on Monday.
“The micro-level planning and tireless efforts that have been going on for the past two months for this connection work have succeeded in this important phase,” the release stated.
The BMC was severely criticised after it emerged that the reconstructed Gokhale bridge over railway tracks at Andheri station did not align with the connecting Barfiwala flyover built only over a decade ago.
The release highlighted that after the concrete curing work of 14 days, preparations are being made to start vehicular traffic on both these bridges on July 1.
Barfiwala flyover and Gokhale bridge are important links for Andheri East and West traffic and hence, BMC commissioner Bhushan Gagrani had instructed to speed up the works for connecting both.
A hydraulic jack and ‘MS stull packing was used to lift the Barfiwala flyover upwards by 1,397 mm on one side and 650 mm on the other side. At the same time, pedestals (supporting pillars) have been used under the Barfiwala flyover, the BMC stated.
The release highlighted that matching the ‘bolt’ given to the pedestal with the pillars of the Barfiwala flyover was a crucial challenge.
“The challenge of matching these two pedestals very precisely within a space gap of just 2 mm was met by the technical team of engineers and consultants of the bridge department in a very planned and scientific manner,” the release stated.
The work was done under the supervision of technical experts of Veermata Jijabai Institute of Technology (VGTI), IIT Bombay, and Stractonic Consulting Engineers, the consultant firm for the project.
High-quality concrete has been used to complete the concreting work quickly.
After this work, a ‘load test’ will be carried out on the bridge within 24 hours. Along with it, the bridge joint work is also expected to be completed soon, as per the release.
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