Crumbling infra: Hole appears on 12-year-old Sumanahalli flyover showing road below

Traffic was allowed on the flyover after barricading the broken section, while part of the flyover will likely remain closed during the repair work to begin from Thursday

A massive hole surfaced on the Sumanahalli flyover on Tuesday, exposing the civic body’s substandard flyover audit and the BDA’s poor work execution.

Traffic was allowed on the flyover after barricading the broken section, while part of the flyover will likely remain closed during the repair work to begin on Thursday.

The hole appeared next to the median on the four-lane flyover on the Outer Ring Road between Goraguntepalya and Nayandahalli. The vehicular movement towards Laggere from Nayandahalli slowed down as the broken area was barricaded. Police said traffic flow on the opposite side remained smooth.

The hole was so massive that it was possible to see the road below. Though the metal structure remained intact, cement and stone aggregates crumbled and fell down on the road below. The flyover is just 12 years old.

Repeat of 2019

This is not the first time a hole has appeared in the flyover. A similar one surfaced in November 2019. The BBMP said the hole that appeared now is not in the same spot as the previous one.

“We will undertake repair works on Thursday,” B S Prahlad, Chief Engineer at the BBMP’s Road Infrastructure Division, said in a written statement.

According to the BBMP, the BDA constructed the flyover in 2006, but the work was completed in 2010. The authority handed over the flyover along with the Outer Ring Road to the BBMP in 2014-15.

“The pre-cast pre-stressed concrete (PSC) girder does not have any issues. The structure is strong. Only the RCC slab has lost the binding in one place. It will be fixed,” a BBMP official said. Sources said the repair work could take at least two months.

Audit report

In 2020-21, the BBMP engaged a consultancy firm to assess the safety of flyovers and underpasses, which declared 29 city flyovers as structurally sound.

The report, while pointing out some minor repairs, had stated that no flyover is being regularly maintained. The BBMP had spent close to Rs 5 crore to prepare the report.