BOLD MEN AND THE SEA

The central tower of the cable-stayed portion is 125 metres tall, the height of a 50-storey building. Held up by what appear to be candy-floss strings, the cable-stayed bridge has captured Mumbai’s imagination, and sent price tags of apartments with a view of the altered horizon skyrocketing.
What look like slender strings from a distance are themselves an example of high-precision engineering—formed of 7-mm slender stress-relieved high-tensile galvanised steel wires, joined in precise sequences from 61 wires to 139 wires, to hold up the city’s first cable-stayed bridge. It’s also the world’s longest cantilevered, pre-cast concrete segmental cable-stayed bridge—longer bridges with cable-stayed portions across the world are not made entirely of pre-cast concrete segments. Once complete, the 5.6-km sea link will take Mumbaiites from Mahim to Worli in just seven minutes—right now it takes about 40 minutes. And when the first motorist begins that zippy ride, some hearts will swell with pride. Here they are, the team of cutting-edge professionals, talking about what they have crafted.

‘It’ll be Mumbai’s signature bridge but there is a lesson to be learnt’
AS far as Ajit Gulabchand is concerned, the bridge should have been built long ago. Others—the Sewri-Nhava Trans Harbour Sea Link, the Eastern Freeway, the Worli-Nariman Point Sea Link—too. That’s why, the chairman and managing director of Hindustan Construction Company, contracted by the Maharashtra State Road Development Corporation to build the Bandra Worli Sea Link, says he’s had to “battle a lot of battles”, with nature and with the administrative system.
Dogged by delays right since 2000, the cost implication of multiple design changes led to a bitter dispute between HCC, the project management consultant and the state government. But the design changes, further cost escalations and more failed agreements are, to Gulabchand, the “smaller context”.
“This is going to be Mumbai city’s signature bridge, it’s a fine piece of engineering, a very high-tech operation, and we are very glad and grateful that HCC could be involved…But the entire system of getting things built needs to be substantially changed, made more efficient,” he says, adding that lessons need to be learnt from the eight-year experience of building the Bandra Worli Sea Link. Calling for responsible and accountable city government, Gulabchand says the procurement system causes way too many delays, the design changes must be costed quickly and paid immediately and any third party arbitration should be quick and fair. “The dispute redressal mechanism is skewed in the favour of the Government,” he says, pointing out that the sole arbitrator is a retired bureaucrat. “And the most important thing is the slowness of the process—six months for a decision to get Cabinet approval.” Minister (Public Works) Anil Deshmukh agrees that the sea link will be the city’s “second landmark after the Gateway of India”, but promises that not only will this one change the way Mumbai’s motorists get to South Mumbai, but construction of the next projects will be supervised and managed much more efficiently.

Santosh Rai, 31
One half of the cable-stayed bridge almost ready, he’s got another to supervise. with the project since April 2005
WHEN he took this job, he had the option of going to Jordan on an L&T assignment, also for a cable-stayed bridge. “I preferred Mumbai. It wasn’t Mumbai, it was the bridge.”
In charge of coordinating planning and engineering for the superstructure of the cable-stayed bridge, Rai says repeatedly that the biggest complexity of the job was the uniqueness of the bridge itself. “If you look at the base of the central tower, we were building something like concrete legs falling as they grew higher—and we had to make sure they didn’t fall, though the design naturally led them to collapse,” he says.
He spent three months in a boiler suit in a workshop, with a small team building a prototype of a lifting frame, conducting load tests and operational tests before attempting to make it work on the real site. Rai also coordinated with Austrian experts Doka Formwork, who are working on projects ranging from the Burj Dubai to the Vienna Skylink. “You had to build to a certain height, free of support, free of a crane, then add a concrete member, going on this way to become a 70-metre-tall concrete arm that’s falling.”
Rai has ensured everybody he has met has gained some understanding of the nitty-gritties of high-precision engineering involved in the Sea Link. “My wife has to tell me to change the subject,” he grins.

D K Sharma, 39
On site seven days a week for eight years, his longest holiday was for four days.
with the project since February 2000
“SO much has happened,” says Sharma, chief engineer, who has been working on the project since February 2000, immediately after bids were opened, though the work was awarded to HCC only in October 2000. “Changes in project design, the discussions and negotiations between the client and the independent engineering consultant…that has taken up most of my time.” Scheduled for a March 2003 completion, the far-reaching changes in design and methodology after work began and the ensuing dialogue with various agencies meant this civil engineer from Aligarh Muslim University has sharpened his managerial skills.
From planning to dealing with quality points and coordinating with a multitude of suppliers, agencies and officials, he’s been doubly busy in the last month when construction of the cable-stayed bridge was on critical path—the cable-work had to be complete before the rains hit. Over eight years, he has grown attached to everything associated with the sea link: The office, the daily commute from HCC’s residential colony at Vikhroli and even the people he’s had to take on professionally. “Since I’ve been here from the beginning,” he says, “this feels like home.” He’s been gone away for not more than seven days a year, and never more than three or four days at a time. “I just go for Deepavali and return the next day,” he smiles.

Ray Frame, 56
Of 604 piles that hold up the bridge, he’s completed 534. with the project since August 2001
HIS was among the physically most challenging jobs, manning a team of 40-50 people always working at sea. Responsible for erecting the bridge’s foundations—consisting of ‘piles’ or concrete poles driven into soft soil until they hit hard rock—he has supervised the driving of almost every pile holding up the bridge, from starting with the test piles in August 2001.
Frame says one of the most challenging tasks was laying the pile and pile-cap for Pier 19—the site of the central tower of the cable-stayed bridge. “There’s a VSNL cable below, so that makes it very difficult. When you put in the anchors, you don’t want to hit a cable,” says the Scot.
Also, the wide variations in the nature of the soil offered a unique set of challenges: while the soil near the Bandra end was rather soft, the marine engineers were faced with boring through hard basalt rock at the Worli end.
Having worked on a jetty in Dabhol plus projects across the Middle East, Africa and Pakistan, this marine engineer thought he’d seen long projects. “But no project usually goes on this long,” says Frame. “But you can see the end of the tunnel now.”
Having lived in Bandra for eight years, he says he’ll miss the city once the project is over. “But I’m looking forward to the next phase,” Frame says.

S Natarajan, 47
He has 600 of the 2,353 concrete segments that make up the bridge remaining to be cast. with the project since November 2000
BEFORE he could launch the mammoth operation of casting 2,353 concrete segments—each weighing 12 tonnes—at the casting yard site of the sea link, this works manager had to first ready the Bandra plot of land for the massive combined weight of the in-storage segments. “We had to excavate up to 2 metres deep, then lay suitable material layer by layer, including a mix of stone and murrum, to achieve safe bearing capacity of the soil.”
The sprawling yard can store 420 to 430 segments, stacked three high. “That’s the 360 tonnes’ impact on a given area,” adds the diminutive man, who has spent over 25 years as an engineer.
“We cast the first segment in February 2002, by July 2002 we had started casting in full swing,” he says. Ensuring daily production targets were achieved, that resources are available on time were key, since erection of the segments started simultaneously once the launching truss—a customised 1,260-tonne piece of equipment that places, or launches, the precast segments sequentially—was fabricated.
“It took us seven months to fabricate and assemble the truss,” he adds. Natarajan is also responsible for the “birth certificate” of each segment—a unique identification mark defining its exact location and orientation in the bridge, as well as the date it was cast, painted on neatly.

Gunther Proksh, 70 and S P Kannappan, 30
Cable specialists from swiss firm VSL.
They Have been with the project since 2002

FROM lifting the 120-tonne precast segments to pre-stressing works on the segments and also on the cables for the cable-stayed bridge, a small team from Swiss firm VSL—experts in custom-engineered lifting solutions—has been working closely with HCC engineers for over five years as consultants for lifting works.
“We’ve been involved in the installation of the cables, the erection of the segments, the hydraulic lifting, jacks, etc,” says Kannappan. “The length of the stays (the cables) varies from 90 metres to 251 metres, handling that kind of length is quite challenging,” he adds.
Proksh, from Switzerland, has over 40 years of experience in heavy lifting works and says using the decoiler and the lifting saddles for decoiling the stays, which came from China in huge 11-tonne drums, was quite a task. “Transportation of the segments in high tide was tricky too,” he adds. “Because the segments have to be perfectly balanced all the while.”

Debashis Ray, 37
As construction nears end, he’s planning for crash barriers, signages, lighting.
with the project since October 2000
As planning chief, Ray has had to ensure that his crack team never missed a deadline owing to poor management. So, he’s ensured that long lead items were ordered well in time: the 10,000 tonnes of micro silica form Norway that’s been used to improve the durability of the concrete, the thousands of bare bars for the reinforcements correctly ordered and epoxy-coated, the metal liners required for each of the 604 piles to be driven into the sea-bed etc.
“My job started with the finalisation of the methodology, getting this approved,” he says. “Because at tender stage, you only have a schematic sketch.” Then came work procedures, programme scheduling and details, ensuring resources were there when required, mobilising specialised equipment and getting jack-ups fabricated.
“Initially, mobilising manpower for a marine construction site was tough—people were hesitant. We had to get the right people and train others. And they were mostly from places outside the state.”
He still has has hands full—the toll system, the CCTV cameras, the crash-barriers, signages, fittings, electricals. “We’ve shortlisted suppliers and designs,” he says. “The next 15-20 days will see some key decisions on these.”

Subhas Chandra Biswas, 50
A labour contractor, he’s sourcing manpower from West Bengal. with the project since November 2000
HIS men completed the cutting, fixing, reinforcing, concreting and curing for the first pile cap, the first pier and for each of the concrete segments. “I’ve been supplying labourers, some skilled some who have to be trained, for HCC projects since 1982,” says the labour contractor whose men work on the concrete reinforcements. “I’ve worked on the Tarapur project, the turbine in Surat, so many projects,” he says.
The workers mostly come from his home state, West Bengal, from districts like Purulia and Malda. “They come without family members, live here and save every penny they can and send home monthly money orders. They like to have more work; it means more pay, overtime also.” While work on the sea link site continues 24×7, the labourers work in only two shifts, almost all of them preferring to work long hours and take home the overtime. “If you ask them to work only one shift, they’re often not interested.”
His mantra for success is to look after his labourers, tip them handsomely, ensure their safety and living environment are taken care of. “Then they bring you more men.” He also gets them trained, a bonus for the unskilled labourers. While the headcount hits 450 in the peak months, there are 250 men on site right now, working at the casting yard and on the central tower.
Since the sea link project began, Biswas’s fortunes have grown—he now owns a flat in Chembur and drives to work in Bandra.

Strong link
Line up all the 7-mm steel wires (stress-relieved high tensile galvanised steel wires) forming the 264 cables for the bridge and there’s enough to go around the earth’s circumference
The weight of the entire sea link equals that of 50,000 African elephants, its length about 63 Qutab Minars, laid end to end
The pylons and tower holding up the cable-stayed bridge are believed to be a first-ever attempt anywhere in the world. While pylons with double inclination have been built, for example at Rion Antirion, Greece, this geometry is a combination of “fixed curve and varying straights”—three curves in the plan remain constant and three straights keep varying. To the layman, that means the size varies at every millimetre.