The Delisle Road bridge is quietly rising near one corner of the Lower Parel station. The work above the rail tracks is expected to be complete in two months.
The deep foundations of the bridge were laid on either side of the tracks in January and the web girder that is being assembled is now expected to get ready in April.
An engineer said the girder has been designed keeping in mind that the bridge needs to be placed at an angle of 65 degrees, matching with the alignment of its earlier avatar.
The bridge has come up on a skeleton of 360 metric tonnes of stainless steel covered by 3,700 cubic meters of robust M-40 concrete.
The dismantling work of the spans over railway tracks was completed in February 2019, in a record five months. This was followed by the removal of abutments in June 2019 after the civic body cleared encroachments.
The Western Railway then awarded the contract for rebuilding the railway portion for R87 crore and work started in November that year.
The foundation on the east side was completed in May 2020 and completion of the raft foundation on the west side was in June 2020 and the east side by January 2021.
Once WR’s work is done, the BMC will build three approaches – two on the west for dismantling and rebuilding and one on the east for assembly and placing the girders that cannot be lifted and launched without being pushed.
The dismantling and rebuilding of the approaches is expected to be complete by March 2022.
Surjitt Sahani
