Civic body to begin concreting works on Gokhale bridge by end of this week

Data from civic officials showed that the final lowering of the girder onto the pedestal has been completed. According to experts, lowering is the process through which the steel girder, launched at a particular height, is brought down to the bridge alignment.

With the completion of girder lowering, the BMC is now slated to commence works on the final phase of the bridge opening, which involves concreting and other road works, from January 27.

P. Velrasu, Additional Municipal Commissioner (Projects) told The Indian Express, “Within 4-5 days, we will start work on the concreting of the deck, which will be completed soon. Following this, the curing of concrete will take 21 days.”

Earlier in the week, the civic body had announced the following delay in works owing to technical issues, one arm of the bridge was slated to be finally opened by February end. Speaking to The Indian Express, senior BMC officials said that the call of the final date of opening would be taken depending on the railway blocks and other difficulties.

Previously, the BMC had set a mid-February deadline of February 15 for opening one arm of the bridge for vehicular movement.

After the first arm starts catering to traffic, the civic body will launch the second girder in a similar manner with the BMC aiming to make the entire bridge operational by May 2024.

Weighing in at 1300 metric tonnes (MT), the OWG — originally a fabricated structure — was constructed in an Ambala workshop and then transported to Mumbai, where it was assembled near the construction site.

A crucial east-west connector in suburban Mumbai, the Gokhale Bridge in Andheri had shut down in November 2022 owing to its weak structural stability. The old structure was pulled down by the railways in December 2022 while the work order for building the new bridge was issued in January 2023.