Traffic on the Howrah bridge at night and early in the morning will slow down for nearly a month to make way for repair of the road surface.
The repairs, being undertaken by Kolkata Port Trust, which maintains the bridge, began on Friday night and will continue for the next 27 days. A section of the Howrah station-bound flank of the bridge is being repaired first.
Repairs start at 10pm and continue till 6am. During the period, vehicles on the flank under repairs are being made to move slowly.
“As part of the repairs, the bituminous surface of the carriageway of the bridge will be scraped off and the concrete decks underneath will be scanned. After the necessary repairs are carried out, the road surface will be relaid,” said an official of Kolkata Port Trust.
The Telegraph had in March reported about the decision of the port trust to take up repairs of the Howrah bridge’s road surface.
The road surface of the bridge — which was opened to traffic in February 1943 — has been repaired over the years, resulting in the accumulation of bitumen layers, officials said.
The additional layers of bitumen have increased the load on the structure, which has to be reduced, they said.
“The project cost is a little over Rs 3.47 crore. Apart from the main deck, the two approaches of the bridge, too, will undergo repairs,” said a port trust official.
The bridge is 1,500ft long between the two towers and the carriageway is 71ft wide. The footpaths are 18.5ft wide each.
The total load of the superstructure is transported to the concrete deck slab, which lies below the bituminous surface, through 78 hangers, port trust officials said.
“The scraping of the bituminous layer, inspection of the deck slabs and relaying of the road surface will be carried out in three phases. Each phase will last nine days,” said a senior police officer at Lalbazar.
“Work has been restricted to the night and early morning because traffic is thinner then.”