Vehicular movement between the Gopal Krishna Gokhale Bridge and CD Barfiwala Flyover in Mumbai's Andheri will start from July 1, said the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) on Wednesday. The work of aligning the two structures was taken up in April this year and continued during the ongoing monsoon season, when usually all the civil and infrastructure works in the city are stalled for a four-month period. The BMC authorities had also written a letter to the Election Commission of India (ECI’s) office seeking approval for starting the work at the time, when code of conduct for the ongoing Lok Sabha elections were imposed, so that the merging of the two bridges could begin by April and be finished by June 30. Civic officials said that hydraulic jacks were used to lift two spans of girders that were required for merging the alignment of the two structures. The spans were lifted by 1,397 mm and 650 mm each. Besides this, the BMC has also installed six new bearings in the structure. The Barfiwala Flyover was constructed in 2008 and would originate from Juhu and connect with the north-south arms of the old Gokhale Bridge, which has been in existence since 1960. The latter was demolished in 2022 and a new bridge was constructed in its place, which was opened for vehicular movement on February, 26 this year. However due to the guidelines of railways, since this bridge passes above the railway tracks, the BMC constructed the new Gokhale Bridge at an elevated height of six metres, resulting in misalignment of its arms with the Barfiwala Flyover, following which the authorities had taken up the task of joining the two structures at a cost of Rs 8 crore.
