Traffic curbs will be in place over Ernakulam North overbridge from 10 p.m. to 5 a.m. up to mid-November as DMRC began launching metro girders over the bridge.
Motorists will have to use A.L, Jacob and Pullepady overbridges to reach the city and back during night on these days. The first such girder in the Palarivattom-Jos Junction reach was launched early on Saturday morning. A few girders were transported from Manappattiparambu Ground, Kaloor, to the bridge on Saturday night and have been kept ready for the launch. A total of 52 girders will be launched over the bridge during the coming weeks at an average rate of two per day by the contracting firm CVCC. Forty pre-stressed concrete girders are already stacked at Manappattiparambu Ground for the launch. They are transported to the bridge using hydraulic axle trailers and launched using cranes.
Each girder weighs 75 tonnes, is 25 metres long and 1-metre wide. “Unlike launching girders in metro via duct elsewhere where there is sufficient width, there are constraints like steep gradient of a four-lane bridge,” sources said.
