The roaring Ganga river fails to deter them. They have been working day and night, literally, to construct a bridge over the mighty river in Kannauj so that the expressway connecting lucknow and Agra becomes operational by October 2.
“The Ganga river is sacred but unpredictable. Its mighty current is its beauty but it poses a steep challenge in bridge construction over it. The river is in spate, still the engineers are working overtime, often late into the night and even upto early morning, to ensure the timely completion of the bridge and meet the deadline,” explained senior engineer of UP Expressway Indiustrial Developent Authority (UPEIDA) Anant Sharma told ‘The Pioneer’.
During the construction of the bridge over the Ganga river, the workmen and engineers are not scared bythe roaring water current and have been taking up the challenge with a unique degree of composure.
“We work in sync with the Met department officials. At the time of cloud burst in Haridwar, we had a warning message and we shifted the construction material heaped at the site to avoid damage,” said Sharma even as he directed a workman to take a crane to the construction site.
Normally, construction of bridges over major rivers takes three to five years time. The work stops with the onset of monsoon because rivers get flooded and the work is resumed after the water level recedes.
But the engineers working in this section of the lucknow-Agra expressway do not have that luxury. They were asked to construct the bridge over Ganga and Ishan rivers, which falls in the 64 km long stretch passing through Kannauj. The massive project started in early 2015 and the engineers were asked to complete the job in flat 18 months.
The senior engineer said that the construction of the base of pillars, which support the spans, started after stopping the flow of river water. The pillar’s base are thrust 30 feet deep into the riverbed so that it can withstand the heaviest force of water current even when the river is at spate.
“We need an opportune time for this. Usually the work is done much before the monsoons, as no one can check the mighty flow of the Ganga,” he said.
The scene of laying of spans over the marauding Ganga river is indeed captivating and exciting. The workmen have the perfect skill and their guides - the engineers of UPEIDA. A long crane has been pressed at one end of the Ganga (in village of Bangarmau). The liftcranes lift the spans and drag it over to the crane which in turn rests it on the pillars.
The country’s longest Agra-lucknow Expressway, which will have 13 bridges on its 302-km stretch is set to construct the longest (750 meters) eight-lane bridge across Ganga river connecting Unnao and Kanpur. The bridge will also be the longest across any river built on an expressway.
The bridge will have 15 girder spans, each with a length of 50 meters that will be laid between Sirdharpur Ahitmali village of Bangarmau area in Unnao and Baharampur Araul ghat of Kanpur district across the Ganga.
Of the total 13 long bridges (each over 60 meters in length), four bridges each will be constructed in lucknow and Kannauj region, while two each will be constructed in Etawah and Shikohabad-Firozabad region and one in Agra.
Over Ganga and Ishan rivers, the work is in full swing while construction of a flyover to avoidthe the railway tracks below is also nearing completion. The long shafts and arms of thecranes and other heavy machines make up for the hazy skyline of the area.
“The flow of water current is Ishan River is ominously fast. Most of the time it sweeps away the sand sacks putthere to stop water flow and ease the ongoing work. We have had to change the river course also at places in view of the expressway route map. In our efforts, we were fully helped by the Irrigation department officials,” said the engineer.
Anat Sharma infomed that a stretch of road near the full clover at Fagwa village will also double up as a runway. “ A runway needs special kind of surface to bear the thrust when a helicopter or aircraft lands. We have constructed it near the clover leaf and it may be used during exigency,” he said.