A New Bridge Over Mandovi

“We build too many walls and not enough bridges.” So had said the illustrious scientist, Sir Isaac Newton! Fortunately, Goa has witnessed construction of a number of bridges during the past two decades, even though the construction of walls has not reduced.

A cable-stayed bridge is not a novelty for Goa as one of such kind was constructed in Aldona-Corjuem, way back in 2004.

However, the sheer length and the height of the new cable-stayed bridge on the River Mandovi being inaugurated on January 27 make it an iconic structure.

This country’s third longest cable-stayed bridge developed under Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s ambitious ‘Make in India’ initiative, had its foundation laid by Prime Minister himself on June 14, 2014, at the Kala Academy Complex.

The Goa State Infrastructure Development Corporation (GSIDC) is the implementing agency, and it awarded this project to L&T (Larsen and Toubro) Construction Heavy Civil Infrastructure, appointing Mumbai based M/s TPF Engineering Pvt Ltd as consultant for detailed design of the bridge.

Engineers from IIT-Chennai were also engaged for this project.

During the period of four-and-a-half years, nearly 1,100 workmen worked in three shifts and around 50 engineers of L&T, GSIDC, IIT-Chennai and the consultants worked day and night for completion of this 70-metres high bridge.

The project, which missed some deadlines due to litigations, is worth approximately Rs 600 crore with 50 per cent share of Rs 291 crore shouldered by the Union Ministry of Road Transport and Highways. The remaining part of the bridge connecting road to Ponda with it and vice versa will be completed by March 29, 2019.

The main reason behind construction of this bridge was to support and sustain burgeoning Mumbai-bound traffic coming in from Bangalore via Ponda route and Old Goa towards NH-17 in the city, thus causing traffic congestions and road mishaps.

Around 66,000 vehicles use this route every day, leading to hours of congestion, especially, during the peak tourist seasons in Goa.

This new iconic bridge will help overcome the bottlenecks caused at the Panaji KTC Circle and Panaji entrance as the same route is currently being used by local traffic as well as NH-17-bound traffic.

Another reason for the state government to take up the construction of this bridge was a public interest litigation filed before the Goa Bench of Bombay High Court in the year 2013 highlighting worsening traffic scenario traffic in the state.

Since a comprehensive solution had to be worked out, it was decided to find a traffic solution as indicated in the Master Plan for holistic development of capital city as prepared by consultancy firm M/s LKS India Pvt Ltd.

It was then felt that if the recommendations of the Master Plan were to be followed then a third parallel bridge between the two existing Mandovi bridges would have to come up, so as to ease traffic congestion, both on Porvorim as well as St Cruz/ Merces side thereby relieving pressure of existing traffic at the KTC Circle as well as Merces Circle, which have been indicated as critical points in the petition.

A simulated test was conducted on the new Mandovi bridge at the Council of Scientific & Industrial Research (CSIR) – Structural Engineering Research Centre, Chennai. The bridge was tested for lift and drag and the factors were worked into the design of the bridge to ensure that the structure is safe.

IIT Chennai-was appointed for proof checking the design of the bridge. The design has been verified and found sturdy.

Waterproofing of the bridge was carried out by the end of 2018, followed by laying of asphalt. Around the same time, the work of electrical cabling and putting up of the lamp poles on the bridge was undertaken. The final load testing of this bridge commenced on January 24 and was completed successfully on January 25. The bridge deck was subjected to about 550 tonne of load as per the highway.

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Source: NavHindTimes

Image Courtesy: MysuruToday

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