Solan: Damaged NH-5 stretch to be restored in three months

Ambika Sharma

Solan, September 15

The restoration of 50-m stretch on the road leading to a flyover at Shamlech village on the Solan-Dharampur section of National Highway-5, which caved in on August 11, will take another three months.

The detailed geo-technical investigations, including soil testing of the site, have been undertaken by experts from the National Highways Authority of India (NHAI) in the last one month.

Project Director, NHAI, Ram Asra Khural said GR Infraprojects, which was executing the four-laning work, would submit its design based on geo-technical studies within two days. Following this, it would be approved and work would begin soon.

“Soil testing of the site has revealed that soil strata is weak even up to 20 m depth hence deeper foundation where hard rock is available will be laid. The design to re-construct the caved-in road is being prepared keeping in view this handicap to ensure that such a mishap is not repeated,” added Khural.

“With the rainy season subsiding, the restoration work will begin soon and it is likely to be completed within three months. Engineering techniques like micropile can be undertaken to construct a stronger base,” said Khural.

Key aspects like load bearing capacity of the strata, presence of hard rocks, etc. have been taken into consideration to prepare the new design.

Technical reports have confirmed that the base of the road had gradually eroded owing to the seepage of water from a culvert. Stress will be laid on strengthening the drainage mechanism and deeper foundation would be laid.

“Effective channelisation of the water will be undertaken. Work will begin once the design is approved by NHAI officials,” said Balwinder Singh, Project Manager, GR Infraprojects.

The technical team has examined various aspects while designing the restoration of this stretch as it leads to a flyover. Loss caused by caving-in of this stretch was assessed in crores. Its total cost has exceeded the initial estimated cost of Rs 748 crore owing to several modifications and addition of new interventions.