Skewed pillar of road bridge razed

Kothagudem: Following the directions of engineering officials, the contractor who has taken up construction of road bridge across the River Godavari has demolished a part of the pillar on Thursday.

The said pillar towards Sarapaka was demolished for a height of 10 meters as it was skewed.

Three months ago, the Chief Engineer of the National Highway Authority inspected the progress of the bridge works and expressed dissatisfaction.

He warned the contractor, Rajdeep Constructions of Maharashtra, which got the contract to execute the bridge at a cost of Rs 65 crore, of annulling the contract if the contractor failed to mend his ways.

The NIA engineers found there was a marked difference in the level of pillars executed using new centering system. The engineering officials upon inspection decided to pull down the top skewed portion of the structure.

The construction of the pillar would be done using the age-old centering system instead of new system.

Further, work on the second road-bridge across River Godavari commenced on April 1, 2015, instead of July 2014, because of the delay in securing technical clearances.

Union Ministers Nitin Gadkari and Bandaru Dattatreya and Roads and Transport Minister Tummala Nageswara Rao laid the foundation stone for the road-bridge works. The second bridge was necessitated as the first bridge, built 50 years ago, is not able to cope up with the increased traffic.

Like the first bridge, the second one will also have 37 pillars. Right from the beginning, the bridge works were progressing at a snail’s pace.

There was no progress in the execution of works in spite of engineering officials serving notices on the contractor. The officials extended the deadline for completion of works to September 30 this year.

Earlier, the works were supposed to be through by July 2016. However, the question remains whether the works would be executed fully by July 2018.

Meanwhile, the news on social media stating that a pillar under construction of the second bridge collapsed went viral. Responding to social media reports, several gathered at the first road bridge to catch a glimpse of the demolition.

Clarifying the issue, National Highway Authority Divisional Engineer Vidyasagar said the contractor was asked to pull down top 10 metres skewed portion of the pillar and it was done on technical grounds. He ruled out collapse episode of the pillar.