Peenya flyover closure sparks confusion, traffic snarls

The closure of the Peenya flyover from Tuesday night triggered confusion among motorists on Wednesday morning as they seemed unaware of the changes.

The flyover, whose mouth faces the Peenya metro station, experiences high traffic, particularly outbound towards Nelamangala and Tumakuru.

On Wednesday morning, vehicles slowed down at the start of the flyover upon encountering barricades and signboards announcing its closure until 11 am on Friday.

Both traffic police and the National Highways Authority of India (NHAI) urged commuters to use the highway service road below the flyover. However, this resulted in traffic delays on the service road towards the Peenya industry metro station.

A traffic policeman managing the service road assured that the situation would improve as the day goes by. "This (regular traffic) looks worse because two-wheelers and light motor vehicles have joined the service road now. But they are all stopping because of a signal ahead, not because of a change in the number of vehicles. By noon, this will ease out," he said.

Buses, both KSRTC and BMTC, opted for the toll free service road on the left lane, while some vehicles continued on the highway service road. Notably, a significant number of two-wheeler riders took U-turns to join the toll-free service road about 150 metres behind the buses, just before the signboards at the flyover entrance. This caused disruptions in traffic flow because of the vehicles crisscrossing the lanes.

By contrast, traffic on the city-bound side below the metro station proceeded smoothly.

Chandresh, a Nelamangala-bound light goods vehicle driver waiting at the signal, felt traffic congestion had worsened however temporary it might be.

“I understand that the testing is required, but all these two-wheeler riders ride very rashly in between vehicles, slowing down our movement. I hope the situation improves (on Thursday),” he said.

To ease the congestion at the Goraguntepalya junction and the Peenya flyover service road, traffic police directed goods vehicles and Tumakuru-bound vehicles on the Outer Ring Road-Sumanahalli flyover to take Magadi Road and then NICE Road.

Why the closure?

The 4.2-km flyover was closed for heavy vehicles in December 2021 due to prestressed cable corrosion in its three spans. The NHAI has reinforced the flyover with 240 prestressed cables and aims to conduct load tests.

Sixteen trucks, each weighing 32 tonnes, are stationed on two spans (pillars 105-106 and 117-118), monitoring the flyover's hogging and sagging. A temperature test is also conducted, said KB Jayakumar, Project Director (Bengaluru), NHAI.