Team Herald
CANACONA: After the first girder got discarded for vertical cracking, a second girder meant for one of the twin bridges over Talpona and Galgibag rivers has developed cracks.
The work for the 7.74 kms Canacona bypass commenced in December 2015, which will shorten the distance between Canacona to Karwar by 10 kms on NH66, is marred with controversies and surfacing of cracks to the second girder has raised doubts in the minds of locals over the quality of the materials and workmanship employed for the construction of the four-lane highway stretch.
During inspection of the cracked girder casted at Ganebagh near Talpona it was observed that a superficial white cement paste was applied to hide a crack, while other cracks at the end were visible to the naked eye.
Locals residing around Galgibag have raised concerns over the quality of raw materials and the substandard work undertaken by the contractor of the 21.5 metre wide road linking Charasta to Mashem. They have also made several representations and have complained in the past to various authorities over the work undertaken by the contractor M Venkata Rao of Infra Pvt Ltd.
The issues ranged from illegal filling and reclamation at Mashem river mouth to inadequate curing, curing of cement works with saline water, substandard work on the dividers, erection of RMC and asphalt batching plant at eco-sensitive and divine plateau of Kulty, thereby destroying the frog-breeding habitat in the area.
Herald, dated October 14, last year had carried a report with photo of one of the 30-metre girder breaking in the middle, after which several complains by individuals and NGO’s where submitted to various authorities, but locals say no action was taken.
The Galgibag bridge is 980 metres, has 31 spans of 30 metres and one span above the river is 50 metres in length which is so for navigational purposes, each span has 7 girders and a total 224 girders will be required for this stretch from Galgibagha till Dapot in Mashem. The Talpona bridge is 450 metres long and has 10 spans of 40 metres and one span of 50 metres. Altogether 77 girders are required.
With the girders built at the site of construction and with no compaction facility available while casting the girders as alleged by locals there is a possibility of one or more girders failing and the deck of the bridge supported by this girders might collapse due to its own weight or due to the vibrations of the fast moving heavy traffic.
Activist Manoj Prabhugaonkar, who lives near the Mashem side of the bridge site, said checks and balances are an important aspect for any project and quality control is to be ensured for the safety of the local public and the road users once the bridges are commissioned.
Another activist Diogo Da’ Silva complained that he has been commuting daily by the construction site and he has hardly seen any supervisors at the site since the work started two years ago.
A RTI activist Pradeep Mokhardakar from Talpona said there should be quality checks on the work executed by the contractor and if the girders are not up to the standards they shouldn’t be used.
