NHAI to test concrete used in Sohna elevated stretch

The National Highways Authority of India (NHAI) will test the concrete used to construct the elevated section of Sohna Road, a portion of which collapsed on Thursday

The National Highways Authority of India (NHAI) will test the concrete used to construct the elevated section of Sohna Road, a portion of which collapsed on Thursday night. The agency may also review its design, as suggested by experts who inspected the site.

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Three girders of the 5-km project fell on Thursday at around 9.50pm near Vipul Greens condominium injuring two labourers. Light traffic and the weekend restrictions in place to prevent the spread of the coronavirus disease helped keep casualties down.

Senior NHAI officials and consultants to the projected had visited the site on Thursday night along with technical experts. The damaged 40-metre section, NHAI officials said, will be removed within 15 days and fresh girders will be installed.

“A team of experts has inspected the site and it will look into the issues which led to crashing of the span. All steps would be taken to ensure such incidents don’t happen,” said RK Pandey, member, NHAI, (Project), who along with a large team inspected the site.

The NHAI also directed the contractor to barricade the accident area effectively to ensure no further threat to motorists and workers, and to ensure any further failings of the structure do not result in loss of life.

“It has also been decided to increase the frequency of quality control tests, especially after concreting, and test the quality of segments and wings,” said a senior NHAI official who spoke on condition anonymity.

Manoj Kumar, member, project, NHAI, who also inspected the site said that all aspects of the collapse would be investigated but it would be difficult to ascribe any reason for the incident without testing.

As per the details shared by an official of the contractor, the collapse of the span happened on pier 10 but another end of span was still hanging. The launching and gluing of this segment happened on August 5 and stressing work was completed on August 7. The launcher, which is used to place these spans was shifted from pier 11 to 12 on August 22 evening, the day the span collapsed.

“This is a rare incident as we follow all norms and quality control measures. We will probe the incident and take corrective measures,” said JP Gupta, senior official of Oriental Engineering, the contractor.

Ashok Sharma, project director, NHAI, meanwhile, said that the incident happened within the barricaded area of the site and no work was going on under or above the collapsed span. “The affected areas has been barricaded and more measures are being taken to ensure safety and security of commuters and workers. A private laboratory in Delhi will test the materials,” he said.