Repair works on Lalbaug flyover holds up traffic

Traffic from south Mumbai to central parts of the city was affected throughout Thursday after cracks developed on Lalbaug flyover. BMC officials said that vehicular movement would be regularised by late Thursday night by carrying out repairs on a temporary basis. South-bound traffic was smooth however north-bound traffic was closed due to repair works, leading to huge traffic snarls from Byculla to Dadar with commuters having to spend a lot of time in their vehicles.

S.P. Kori, chief engineer, BMC bridges department, said, “Traffic will be regularised by late Thursday night by placing steel plates into cracks that have developed owing to damage to the rubber seal used for connecting expansion joints of the bridge. The concrete on the joints has also come off. The damage has been caused due to wear and tear.” Civic officials explained that rubber seal was used to prevent contraction or expansion of the bridge so that cracks would not develop. The same would be changed during repair works.

The 2.45-km flyover was built at a cost of Rs 140 crore by the Mumbai Metropolitan Region Development Authority (MMRDA) and opened to the public in 2011. It was handed over to the BMC for maintenance two years ago. The flyover, built by Simplex Infrastructure Ltd., is the fifth one on Dr Babasaheb Ambedkar Road. Civic officials said that the defect liability period (DLP) of the flyover was on till December and the contractor would carry out repair works. The DLP stipulates that the contractor has to maintain and repair the road/bridge free of cost during the specified period after building it.

Mr Kori said, “We had a meeting with Simplex officials this morning and asked them to carry out flyover repairs at the earliest. While temporary repairs will be carried out by late evening, full-fledged repairs will need a lot of planning.”