India's 2nd cable-stayed, steel-deck bridge coming up near Howrah Station
Times of India | 3 January 2025
It will replace a nearly century-old bowstring bridge over the congested GT Road HOWRAH: A single-pylon cable-stay road over bridge (ROB) is being constructed to replace a nearly century-old bowstring bridge over the congested GT Road and across the rail tracks leading to Howrah Station. This will be only the second one in the country, after the Atal Setu or the Mumbai Trans Harbour Link, to feature an orthotropic or solid steel plate deck.
Designed by the Taiwanese company Weicon and being constructed by cable-stay bridge experts SP Singla Construction Pvt Ltd, the 607-metre, four-lane bridge costing Rs 174 crore will free up space below it. This will allow Eastern Railway to add more tracks and remove the bottleneck that currently causes delays for trains heading into Howrah Station. Passengers of long-distance trains arriving in Howrah during busy office hours are often made to wait for local trains carrying office commuters to pass. The new bridge is located just 200 metres from the station.
"The 60-metre Chandmari Bridge, constructed in 1933 and popularly called Bangal Babu Bridge, leads to constriction of the yard with only 12 tracks passing under it. Once the new bridge is commissioned sometime in Dec 2025, the clearance under the bridge span will increase to 134 metres and enable remodelling of the yard with the addition of more tracks," said Howrah divisional manager Sanjeev Kumar. Work on the bridge started in Dec 2019 but was held up due to Covid.
The yard remodelling will happen after the route relay interlocking cabin that lies next to the under-construction bridge is shifted and an electronics interlocking building is constructed in its place. The contract for this work has already been awarded.
While the main steel plate deck is currently under construction, another major feat was casting 2,000 cubic metres of RCC slab of the bridge's back span in a single go. However, it is the orthotropic main deck that is the USP of the bridge. The steel structure, while being lighter, will ensure better weight distribution. "The 11 segments of the bridge's steel deck will be held in place by 56,000 bolts," an engineer engaged in the project said. In contrast, the Howrah Bridge just 200 metres away has no bolts.
The bridge will also enable improvement of traffic flow in the area as the new bridge will be four-lane instead of the two-lane Chandmari Bridge. This can lead to two-way movement of traffic along this stretch of BT Road instead of the current one-way traffic restriction. The new bridge will lead to HM Basu Road, which connects GT Road with Howrah Bridge.
Around 30,000 cubic metres of reinforced cement concrete, 2,000 tonnes of structural steel, and 4,000 tonnes of reinforced steel will be used in the bridge construction. Altogether, 54 cables strung up from the 81.4-metre high pylon will hold the bridge deck in place.
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