MUMBAI: Western Railway will conclude the launching of the second girder for the Delisle road over bridge across the tracks at Lower Parel station by Sunday. The construction of the bridge, which was shut for traffic in 2018, has missed four deadlines since it was first announced that this connector will be opened in August 2020.
WR's chief public relations officer Sumit Thakur said, "The launch of the second girder is expected to be completed by Sunday."
WR is undertaking the work of launching the girder during night time (between 1.10 am and 5 am). As a result a few train services, which run during this period will remain affected.
The weight of the girder is about 1040MT, and it is being pushed across the track.
After the launch, WR will hand over the land retained for launch of girder to the BMC for rebuilding the approaches .
The work on the bridge is challenging as its design is complex since it is not a straight road. The bridge is set at a skew of 65 degrees above the railway tracks. The bridge has Open Web Girder (OWG) design and hence it cannot be lifted and directly placed above the tracks. It was lifted using heavy duty jacks and placed on rolling girders.
The OWG is being pulled every day by a few metres before eventually getting placed on the new substructure already constructed . The first OWG was launched on June 22, 2022. The bridge will be 90m long and 16m wide, including an 11m wide dual carriageway with 2m wide footpath (on each side).
The work on the bridge got prolonged due to multiple reasons.
