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A new bridge soon for Nethravathi.

Last Updated 23 December 2011, 12:01 IST

When the stone abutment of the bridge across river Nethravathi on the Ullal side collapsed recently, the vehicle users had a harrowing time with the movement of vehicles. However, one need not worry over such incidents in the future as a parallel bridge across the river Nethravathi on National Highway 66 on the outskirts of Mangalore is under progress and is likely to be  completed in another one year time.

With the use of advanced technology which is used for the first time in the construction of a bridge in this part of the region, the work will be completed at the earliest unlike the other railway bridge which has taken several years to complete.

The pre-cast concrete girders are being placed on the pillars with the help of an imported hydraulic gantry crane (also known as hydraulically operated pre-cast girder launcher), for the construction of the bridge.

The pre-cast girder launcher was imported from China and costs approximately Rs 3.25 crore. The Navayuga Udupi Tollway Pvt Ltd is building the bridge on the National Highway 66 (formerly NH 17) and is planning to import another launcher, said NHAI Project Director Prashanth N Gawasane.

The NHAI official said that the launcher can lift pre-cast concrete girders weighing 150 tonnes. Presently, the girder weighing 100 tonnes are used in the construction. A girder is a support beam placed horizontally on the pillars of the bridge before laying slabs for making the road. The length of each girder is about 32 metres to 45 metres.

As many as 96 such girders will be placed atop the pillars to complete the 804-metre bridge.

In fact, the engineers from Malaysia and China are also supervising the mechanised placing of pre-cast girders. The parallel bridge across Nethravathi river is built as part of four-laning of road from Nanthoor to Talapady.

Use of of concrete girders and placing them using launcher saves time, the official said.

With the modern technology, the bridge could be completed within the stipulated period. He said the contractors are  placing two pre-cast girders a day on the pillars.
Sources said 12 to 16 pre-cast concrete girders can be made in a month. About 96 pre-cast girders will be placed on the pillars before June 2012.

The work on the bridge was started in September 2010. About 23 pillars with four pillars each needs to be built for the bridge. About 21 pillars have already been laid.
Through hydraulic rig, the pillars have been placed 20 metre to 35 metre deep from the surface.

About 30 girders have already been prepared. More than 10 girders have already been placed atop the pillars. The width of the bridge is 13.1 metre.

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(Published 23 December 2011, 12:01 IST)

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