Flyover work affects traffic on Western Express Highway

The traffic on the south-bound stretch of the Western Express Highway (WEH) was badly affected throughout Friday, as the public works department (PWD) was carrying out maintenance work at the Kalanagar flyover on the WEH.

The PWD’s operations on the south bound carriageway of the Kalanagar flyover will continue till June 6, due to which it will be shut till Monday.

The repair work resulted in traffic on the WEH moving at a very slow pace, resulting in cars crawling right from Borivali till Bandra, which turned into a nightmare not only for motorists but also for traffic police officials.

According to the plans, the expansion joints will be replaced during the weekend and the same requires the PWD to block vehicles from plying.

“The replacement of the expansion joints on the south-bound lanes is being carried out, which is necessary for the civil structure to last long and for which it is necessary to keep flyover shut for vehicles to avoid any disturbance. We will complete the work on the flyover by Monday afternoon,” said S.S. Deshmukh, executive engineer, PWD.

Due to there being a traffic jam on the WEH, motorists preferred to use the Link Road or the Swami Vivekanand Road (SV Road) to ply towards Bandra. However, by afternoon, south-bound traffic on both the Link Road and SV Road was slow moving.

“Looking at the south-bound traffic on the WEH, the traffic department had planned to divert the traffic from strategic locations from wherever there were chances of more vehicles entering the WEH,” said a traffic police official.