Repair of Trichy-Chennai NH bridge to be over this month

Trichy: The National Highways Authority of India (NHAI) has said that repair work on the damaged road overbridge (RoB) near Ponmalai railway station along the Trichy-Chennai national highway (NH) will be completed within the month. Apart from strengthening the damaged areas of the bridge, technical experts commissioned by NHAI are reinforcing unaffected sections to prevent future damage, considering the highway’s significant role in interconnecting various parts of the state.Officials said three teams of workers were engaged in the work. The damaged stones in the bulged portion of the bridge, adjacent to the railway tracks, have been removed, and efforts are underway to strengthen the abutment (supporting structure). NHAI has employed soil nailing and grouting methods to fortify the overbridge. For soil nailing, officials mentioned the marking of grids for installing reinforcements to stabilize the slopes of the bridge. Through grouting, the gaps and cracks in the concrete structure are being rectified. Both technologies are being employed to prevent similar damages in the future. “Professor P Alagusundaramoorthy, a structural engineering expert from IIT Madras, has been overseeing the work weekly. The scrutiny extends not only to affected areas but also to unaffected ones, given the highway’s crucial role in linking central and southern districts to Chennai,” an official source with NHAI said.Specialized horizontal drilling machines have been deployed at the site to expedite the strengthening work and reopen the bridge within the next two weeks. Meanwhile, to ensure the uninterrupted progress of repair work, traffic movement on the damaged bridge has been prohibited for over a month. Concerns have been raised about the inconvenience caused by traffic bottlenecks during peak hours and weekends. “People are suffering due to the traffic bottlenecks in peak hours and weekends. The NHAI must deploy more experts and workers to complete the remaining work on a war footing,” H Ghouse Baig, a consumer rights activist, said.Upon completion of the repair work, NHAI will conduct quality assessment tests to verify the reliability of the strengthened structure. Officials added that a trial run of vehicles will precede the full reopening of the bridge for vehicular movement.