Within 89 days, Indian Railways revamps old rail-cum-road Saraighat bridge over Brahmaputra river in Guwahati

Guwahati, June 29: Reviving the essence by giving a major relief to the commuters, the old rail-cum-road Saraighat bridge over the Brahmaputra river in Guwahati has been reopened after its repair and restoration. Asserted as the crucial link to the city of Guwahati, the woek for rail-cum-road bridge started on March 23and it has been repaired and redeveloped in a target period of just 89 days.

 

Sharing the images of the restoration work done at the upper deck of the bridge, the Northeast Frontier Railway Zone completed the work within the stipulated time. Cited as one of the most difficult work to accomplish, the repair work of the upper deck was tough as the train movement on the lower deck was continuous during the project.

For this restoration project, a total of 500 workers were engaged along with railway engineers to carry out the technically challenging task. The restoration work involved replacing 54 slabs on the entire upper deck as well as 11 expansion joints over the pillars. The methods adopted for this replacement were breaking down concrete slabs, expanding joint slabs and removing expansion joints.

A total of 75 workers per day were involved in breaking the slabs and 45 workers were engaged in cleaning the slabs away from the route. In addition to this, 55 to 65 mm thick heavy-duty Bituminous Concrete (BC) was laid over the upper deck to facilitate vehicular movement. With this, driving over the bridge even at higher speeds would now be smooth and comfortable. More than 500 tonnes of steel plate and reinforcement rods have been utilized for deck slabs alone.

For the improvement of aesthetics, road markings, painting of side beams, side railings and fixing of cat eyes has also been done. This has enhanced the overall appearance and infrastructural of the bridge from near and far.