PWD restricts Borim bridge work to weekend nights

Ponda: After hardships faced by motorists and commuters due to massive traffic jams on Tuesday morning following strengthening work at Borim bridge, the PWD on Wednesday asked the contractor to complete the balance work on weekend nights.

The contractor, Sanrachana Structural Strengthening Pvt Ltd from Thane, Maharashtra, replaced half of an expansion joint of the bridge on Monday.


After the work, concrete was laid to fix the joint, but delays and the time taken for the concrete to set created traffic snarls on both sides of the bridge during peak hours on Tuesday morning.

Anand Vaghurmekar, an assistant engineer overseeing the work, said the contractor has been asked to carry out the remaining work only on weekend nights with pre-notified road closures.

As part of the critical work of replacing bearings and completing other rehabilitation tasks of the Borim bridge, the contractor has taken up the replacement of the expansion joints. The bridge has four expansion joints, and only half of the first joint on the Borim side was replaced on Monday.

Meanwhile, the wearing coat of tar on the surface, will also be replaced.

The contractor has already removed the existing coat by milling and will apply a new coat of polymer modified bitumen concrete, Vaghurmekar, assistant engineer of the national highway division, said.

The contractor had already completed the strengthening work, installation of central hinge bearings and other rehabilitation tasks in Nov last year.

In 2019, a Mumbai-based civil engineering company had carried out external pre-stressing by tightening cables at a cost of Rs 9.9 crore to strengthen the crucial link over the Zuari. That work was completed on April 15, 2018.