An expert team led by K.G. Sathya Prakash, Chief Engineer, Highways Department, assessed the quality of the on-going high-level bridge work across dry Palar River, off Chennai-Bengaluru Highway (NH-48), at Sathuvachari, that comes under Vellore Corporation limits, on Saturday.
Officials of State Highways Department, which executes the work, said that the high-level expert team assessed quality of raw materials used for construction, total length and width of completed portion of the bridge, thickness of concrete pillars and decks, and quantity of sand, blue metal and steel rods used for the project. 鈥淨uality assessment by the expert team helps field-level engineers to make minor corrections in the on-going work. It helps to prevent wastages of raw materials and complete the work in time,鈥 R. Poovarasan, Assistant Engineer (AE), Department of Highways, told The Hindu.
During field inspection, Mr. Prakash was accompanied by R.N. Dhanasekaran, Divisional Engineer, Construction & Maintenance (C&M), State Highways (Vellore), V. Kumaresan, Assistant Divisional Engineers (ADE), C&M, for Vellore.
Highways officials said the under-construction bridge across the river is part of the new 3.9-km Bypass Road, which will be a four-lane route. The new Bypass Road will connect Chennai-Bengaluru Highway (NH-48) at Sathuvachari with Kangeyanallur village near VIT in Katpadi. 鈥淭he new Bypass Road will help ambulances from the congested Katpadi area can easily reach Christian Medical College鈥檚 (CMC) Ranipet campus.,鈥 said G. Vimal, a resident.
The new bridge will be built at the centre of the bypass stretch in the river. It will be 475 metres long and 15 metres wide, and will have at least 19 pillars across Palar River. The bridge will be at least three metres higher than the existing Katpadi flyover, which was built in 2009, to prevent any damage to its structure and inundation to its carriageway. In other words, the bridge will be built at a height of 20 ft from the dry river bed.
As per plan, the new bypass will be constructed at a cost of 鈧90 crore in 24 months. The four-lane carriageway of the bypass will be 15 metres wide including 2.5 metres of median. The four-lane stretch will also help more vehicles to use the route than the existing Katpadi flyover, which is a two-lane and one-way route. As per estimates, once completed, the new bypass stretch can be used by at least 17,250 vehicles every day.
At present, the existing Katpadi flyover across Palar River is the lone connectivity between farming villages around Katpadi and Vellore taluks. The flyover, which is a two-lane, also helps goods laden lorries and trucks from southern districts on the Chennai-Bengaluru Highway to reach Andhra Pradesh and Karnataka via Chittoor.