Trial run to launch first girder of Andheri’s Gokhale Bridge tonight
The 90-metre long girder that would be launched uninterrupted will be a single steel structure. This will also be the second longest girder of a railway overbridge (ROB) in Mumbai after the Vidyavihar ROB, which is 99.8 metres in length.
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Meanwhile, the old structure of the Gokhale bridge that was pulled down last year measured 77 metres, while the recently launched Delisle bridge measures 72 metres. (File) The Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) is set to carry out trial runs to launch the first girder of Andheri’s Gopal Krishna Gokhale bridge on Thursday night. Following a final trial run, the girder will be launched. At present, BMC is in the final phase of launching the Open Web Girder (OWG) of Gokhale Bridge and it aims at opening the first phase of this bridge by February 15, 2024.
The 90-metre long girder that would be launched uninterrupted will be a single steel structure. This will also be the second longest girder of a railway overbridge (ROB) in Mumbai after the Vidyavihar ROB, which is 99.8 metres in length. Meanwhile, the old structure of the Gokhale bridge that was pulled down last year measured 77 metres, while the recently launched Delisle bridge measures 72 metres. The BMC, last month, launched the final girder of Vidyavihar ROB.
Also, the Gokhale Bridge is being built by the same contractor–AB Infrabuild, which built the Vidyavihar ROB.
Civic officials said the trial run would involve sliding the girder towards the railway portion and would not involve any new construction.
In a letter, the BMC informed Western Railways on November 28 about the trial run and requested power and traffic block on the railway tracks. “Activities regarding launching the first girder is near completion and we request to obtain necessary traffic and power blocks, starting between the intervening night of Wednesday and Thursday for a trial run of the girder launching upto 3-4 metres,” the BMC’s letter read.
After a successful trial, the entire girder will be launched on the night of December 2 by calling a four-hour long railway block. “After the first girder is launched, work of creating the road in the bridge will be started, which is expected to take about two months, soon after which, we may reopen the first phase of this bridge by mid February,” said an official.
A crucial east-west connector in Andheri at Mumbai’s western suburbs, the Gokhale Bridge was shut down in November last year after authorities cited weak structural stability of the bridge. The old structure was demolished by the Railways in December last year and the work order to build the new bridge was issued January this year. While the first phase of this bridge will start February next year, the entire bridge will become operational from May, 2024 onwards.
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