Anmod Ghat road collapse poses engg challenge, metal base to hold road up

Panaji: Incessant rainfall caused around an 80-metre stretch on Anmod Ghat to collapse on Saturday, leading the district administration to shut the road for heavy traffic for 60 days. This has affected traffic movement on the . More importantly, the road collapse is posing an for officials, who have only up to Sep 2 from the South Goa collector to fix the problem.

The collapse was such that the very base of the road was lost, leaving engineers with no foundation to reconstruct the road. In this situation, the public works department (PWD) has asked the contractor to consider using a . In this method, a metal base will be created, providing some foundation on which the road can be constructed again.

“The slide is on the valley side, and measures will be needed first of all to arrest any further slide. A sheet pile locking system is ideal in such cases. Multiple vertical metal sections are erected, and the sections are secured together through an interlocking system. The road is under a short-term maintenance contract, and the contractor to whom this is allotted will carry out the work,” said an official.

The work is expected to take time as the contractor has to mobilise equipment and material amidst heavy rainfall, said the official. An approximately 50-year-old retaining wall was holding up the road, which is believed to have collapsed after the mud soaked in rainwater due to the heavy rainfall.

“Sheet pile locking systems are designed to create a continuous barrier, typically steel or concrete, to form a wall for earth. These interlocking systems are crucial in offering structural integrity. The interlocking mechanism helps distribute load and resists lateral pressure from soil or water. The interlocks allow the driving of sheet piles into the ground,” an official said.

South Goa collector Egna Cleetus on Saturday issued a notification restricting the movement of heavy vehicles from the Karnataka side towards Ponda for 60 days. The Anmod Ghat section serves as an important link between Goa and Karnataka. The traffic restrictions are expected to affect commercial transportation between the two states. Essential service vehicles and passenger transport buses have been permitted to continue to operate normally on the affected stretch.