STRONG AND STURDY: Thousands of sand bags stacked on the new bridge during the pile load test.
KARUR: Construction of a new bridge across the Cauvery, connecting Karur and Namakkal districts, crossed a milestone with the “pile load test” carried out to ascertain its strength and loading capacity.
The bridge was tested to withstand 1,000 tonnes weight. The construction is part of a Rs.208 crore expansion plan being carried out on the Namakkal-Karur stretch of National Highway 7.
The three-lane bridge, which is expected to be 804 metres long and 12.5 metres wide, will connect Thavuttupalayam in Karur district with Velur in Namakkal district.
The pile boring work was carried out using state-of-the-art technology hydraulic piling rig with special cutting tools imported from Germany. The rig was used to drill the hard rock bed of the river.
A team of officials, led by National Highways Authority of India Project Director M. Thangamani, Project Manager Saibal Ganguly from Reliance Innoventures Limited and Project Head Uday Desai of Gannon Dunkerley and Company Limited, was at hand to conduct and supervise the battery of tests.
Sources said the four-laning work on the stretch, including the construction of the bridge, would be completed ahead of schedule, by September 2008.
Over 20,000 bags of sand, totally weighing over 1,000 tonnes, were piled up on the test bed to ascertain the load withstanding capacity of the pile sunk for the bridge.
The bridge is constructed on a combination of pile and open foundations.
Printer friendly
page Send this article to Friends by
E-Mail
