New flyover to ease woes of Bailey Road commuters

Come Dussehra and the state road authorities will embark on the prestigious Rs 156-crore four-lane flyover project, connecting Sheikhpura with Jagdeo Path in Patna.

The project, first reported by HT on July 30 under the headline 'New flyovers to ease Patna traffic flow', will be unique in quite a few respects.

Besides being Bihar's longest flyover, stretching 2.62 km, the entire structure will be on central single piers - a total of 94. The diameter of each pier will be 2.5 metres, thus allowing more carriageway for service lanes beneath the flyover.

To reduce the jerks in joints of piers, the road construction department, for the first time, has decided to use expansion joints after every three spans.

Given the fact that separation between piers will be at 25 metres, the expansion joints would be at 75 metres and crossing them would be much smoother because the RCD has advised its contractors to use superior expansion joints.

An engineer associated with the project told HT, "The Chirayantand flyover was a learning experience for us. Since the technology used in it was old, expansion joints were used after every pier and the impact of jerks are pronounced. We will address this problem in the new project as superior expansion joints will be used after every three piers."

In a first, the state government will use silica powder in the super structure segment. Together with silica paint for improved finishing, it will give a better aesthetic look to the flyover. "The silica powder and paint technology is presently being used in new flyovers being constructed in metros, including Mumbai," the engineer added.

The Bihar Rajya Pul Nirman Nigam (BRPNN), which has taken up the project and prepared the design and drawing of the flyover, is in the process of getting it vetted by the IIT, Bombay. "A part of the design proof check has already been vetted by it and we hope to get the remaining done in October," BRPNN chairman Sanjeev Kumar Hans told HT.

"We expect to complete this flyover before the next assembly elections in 2015. Given the fact, that new residential colonies are expanding westwards and with the Patliputra (Digha) railway station also expected to become operational soon, we realised the need of an alternative to the bottleneck near the Bailey Road-Ashiana Road intersection," said RCD minister Nand Kishore Yadav.

As of now, the contractors are removing utility cables and transformers and have completed this exercise till Jagdeo Path. Besides, they are also doing pile load testing before they actually get on with the foundation work in mid-October.