Karnataka - Mangalore   

Mangalore-Surathkal four-lane road to be ready by May

— Photo: R. Eswarraj

Brisk work: The asphalting work on four-lane Mangalore-Surathkal stretch began in Mangalore on Friday.

MANGALORE: The journey time from Surathkal to Mangalore is all set to be cut by half as vehicle users on this stretch of National Highway 17 can hope for a pleasant drive by May-end.

National Highways Authority of India (NHAI) has commenced the work of strengthening and widening the Mangalore-Surathkal Road. The road is designed for a speed of 80 kmph.

At present, the road is badly damaged and it takes almost an hour to reach Surathkal which is 20 km. from here.

Latest equipment, mostly imported, is being used to lay the four-lane road. An extra-large paver, a machine that lays the top layers of a road with bitumen mix, has been put to use. It paves one-side carriageway meant to take two-lane traffic at one go. That means, there is no need to pave four times to get a four-lane road. Besides saving time, there will be no joints, according to NHAI project director Prashant N. Gawasane. The computer-controlled machine has sensors on either side that help the operator maintain specifications on road’s gradient and level.

Another imported machine put to use is a mortar grader which ensures a perfect gradient for the road under construction. “We are providing the gradient from the bottom-most layer,” K.H.V. Kameshwara Rao, technical coordinator of Totems Projects, who are laying it, said.

Ircon International Limited, an undertaking of Ministry of Railways, is laying the top three layers, and constructing five flyovers on this stretch. The road will have six layers in all. The bottom-most layer will have 50 cm of soil, 15-cm granular sub-base, 23-cm wet mix macadam (a heated compound of broken stones and tar), 10-cm dense bitumen macadam, 7.5-cm bitumen macadam and finally, 4-cm asphalt concrete. Thus, the top three asphalted layers themselves would be nearly two-foot thick, according to K. Basavarajappa, NHAI consultant. The asphalt of the existing road would be scraped and the top three layers re-laid as per NHAI specifications, he said.

“The road will last for 10 years. The top layer will have to be re-laid after 10 years,” Mr. Gawasane said.

The entire project, with five flyovers, should have been completed by December 2007. But the shifting of water lines and other utility services took more time than expected, he said. Flyovers would be ready by December 2007. Ircon’s additional general manager D.P. Choudhury said the monsoon had affected the work. While the flyovers would come up at Surathkal, Kulur, Kottar Chowki, Kuntikan and Nathur, there would be a diamond-shaped junction, possibly with traffic signal lights, at the Karnataka Polytechnic Circle, the project director said.

The roads will have 1.5-metre median and the carriageway on either side would be 7 metres. There would be paved shoulders of 1.5 metres, Mr. Gawasane said.

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