Bridges older than 20 years to undergo structural audit
The orders from the government were prompted by the Sunday incident in which the bridge over the Indrayani River in Kundamala, located in Maval tehsil, collapsed
The Pimpri-Chinchwad Municipal Corporation (PCMC) will soon conduct structural audits of all bridges that are over 20 years old, following fresh directions from the state government. The directions were issued during a meeting held on Monday.
The orders from the government were prompted by the Sunday incident in which the bridge over the Indrayani River in Kundamala, located in Maval tehsil, collapsed. As many as four were killed and several others were injured in the accident.
Shekhar Singh, municipal commissioner, PCMC, informed that there are over 32 bridges in the twin city. “The PCMC regularly conducts the inspection work and all bridges and structural audits. The civic body conducts structural audits only for bridges older than 30 years. However, with the new directive, all bridges built before 2003 will now be re-evaluated,” he said.
“Out of the 32 bridges, 10 are older than two decades. These bridges are located above railway tracks or rivers and are mostly constructed by the PWD. During the inspection, they will be considered high-risk and will be given top priority during inspections,” said Pramod Ombhase, joint city engineer, PCMC.
According to PCMC officials, there are three old bridges—Harris Bridge in Dapodi, built in 1895, Indira Gandhi Flyover in Pimpri, built in 1983 and Chinchwad Railway Overbridge, built in 1978 Chinchwad amongst the old bridges. The structural audit of Harris Bridge was done in 2019, and its reinforcement was completed.
Similarly, the structural audit of the Indira Gandhi Flyover was done in 2022 and 95% of its reinforcement work has been done. Besides, the structural audit of the Chinchwad overbridge was done in 2023 and reinforcement was done in 2024, and heavy vehicles were banned on it.
