IIT-Roorkee suggests steps to protect Chakki bridge

Rajiv Mahajan

Nurpur, February 28

The IIT-Roorkee has suggested a number of remedial measures for the protection of interstate Chakki bridge on the Pathankot-Mandi NH at Kandwal in Nurpur.

Soil erosion around two pillars of the bridge due to flash floods in August last year had endangered the interstate bridge. The NHAI spent lakhs on raising an embankment around those pillars, but it was washed away after around a month on September 25 last year. Since then, the bridge is closed for heavy vehicles, including buses and trucks.

The NHAI had sought technical guidance to protect the bridge. A team of IIT-Roorkee experts inspected the bridge on December 5 last year.

Sources maintain that illegal and unscientific riverbed mining has caused damage to the foundation of some pillars of the bridge, but the state authorities have failed to check that menace.

The IIT experts have reportedly suggested the construction of a 335-metre-long and 12-metre-high wall on the riverbed with three-metre-deep foundation downstream the damaged Chakki railway bridge. It also suggested the construction of a 10-metre-wide concrete platform upstream and a 10-metre-wide and one-metre-high scour apron alongside it to reduce the impact of flash floods. The construction of another two-metre-high wall at a distance of 150 metre from the scour apron having three-metre-deep foundation would also be constructed.

Vikas Surjewala, Project Director, NHAI, Palampur, said after receiving the IIT report, an estimate was being prepared and it would be submitted to the higher authorities for approval. The remedial measures would be initiated after getting the requisite approval, he said.

Expert advice

• A 335-metre-long and 12-metre-high wall be constructed on the riverbed with three-metre-deep foundation downstream the damaged interstate Chakki railway bridge
• A 10-metre-wide concrete platform and a 10-metre-wide and one-metre-high scour apron be constructed side by side (upstream) to reduce the impact of flash floods

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