A Mumbai-based engineering firm with national footprints will assess the condition of the Parama flyover and draw up a report with suggestions for corrective measures, the urban development department has decided.
The exercise will be held a little over five years after a critical assessment of all the components of the flyover, which connects EM Bypass in the east with Park Circus and AJC Bose Road flyover in the west, was last carried out, senior officials of the Kolkata Metropolitan Development Authority (KMDA) said.
In the intervening period, the flyover had added structures to prevent kite-string injuries to motorists and vehicular load has gone up multiple times.
The TPF Engineering Private Ltd will conduct a preliminary survey of the 7.5-kilometre flyover with a team of KMDA engineers in town within the next few weeks.
Then they will scan the structure in detail before drawing up a report. “The company will assess the condition of the bearings, expansion joints and the concrete portion of the flyover in detail before coming up with their recommendations,” said a senior KMDA official.
“The exercise will also check the load-bearing capacity of the structure considering the vehicular load it caters to daily.”
Barring a few cosmetic changes, including coats of paint and installation of lights, Parama flyover has never been inspected thoroughly except once in 2019.
Engineers admitted that the expansion joints (mid-structure separations designed to relieve stress caused by movement triggered by thermal expansion and contraction) of Parama have worn away, moss has gathered because of a lack of proper drainage system in several patches and the condition of the deck slab and the pier caps have not been assessed for long.
“The most crucial part is the bearings. Their condition has not been assessed for several years,” a senior engineer of the urban development department said.
Faulty bearings had been identified as the main reason for the collapse of a portion of the Ultadanga flyover in March 2013.