The roaring Ganga River fails to deter them. They have been working day and night 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 challenge to construct a bridge over it. The river is in spate, still the engineers are working overtime, often late into the night and even up to early morning, to meet the deadline,” senior engineer of UP Expressway Industrial Developent Authority (UPEIDA) Anant Sharma told The Pioneer.
During the construction of the bridge, the workmen and engineers are not scared by the current and have been taking up the challenge with composure.
“We work in sync with the Met department officials. At the time of cloudburst in Haridwar, we had a warning message and we shifted the construction material piled up 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. The work stops with the onset of monsoon because rivers get flooded and the work is resumed after the water level recedes.
However, 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 fall 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 in full spate.
“We need an opportune time for this. Usually the work is done much before the monsoon, as no one can check the mighty flow of the Ganga,” he said.
The scene of laying span 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 span and drag it over to the crane which in turn rests it on the pillars.
The country’s longest Agra-lucknow Expressway will have 13 bridges on its 302-km stretch. The 750-metre eight-lane bridge over Ganga River connecting Unnao and Kanpur will also be the longest built on an expressway.
The bridge will have 15 girder spans, each with a length of 50 metres 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 metres 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 avoid the railway tracks below is also nearing completion. The long shafts and arms of the cranes 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 put there 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 said that a stretch of road near the cloverleaf 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 cloverleaf and it may be used during exigency,” he said.