The final piece of concrete on the iconic Jayadeva flyover was brought down last week on Friday, nearly ten months after the demolition work began. The Covid-19 lockdown set back its completion date by a month.
The flyover is being demolished to build an Interchange station along with a road-cum-rail flyover that would connect two metro lines of Phase-II, the Yellow Line from RV Road to Bommasandra and the Red Line from Gottigere to Nagawara.
Deputy Chief Engineer, Bangalore Metro Rail Corporation Limited, said a total of 730 metres had been demolished. “The demolition of the main flyover began on January 20 this year and concluded 105 days later on June 5.
Nearly 6,000 cubic metres of concrete has been brought down.” Sadashiva said many safety structures had to be put in place. “Additional support had to be given to the underpass slab of the flyover to take care of additional weight that will be generated during demolition.
For the flyover too, much intermediate support (crib support) had to be given. These were done to ensure additional safety.” Traffic diversions and alternative routes in and around the structure had to be taken.
“Improvements including asphalting were carried out on roads of these routes. And 80 security martials were deployed to control the traffic,” he added.
The country’s first six-level road-cum-rail flyover and allied structures of Namma Metro are likely to ready only by December next year, an extension of six months over the initial deadline. The delay will be because of the Covid-19 induced lockdown and the return of migrant workers to their hometowns.
The work being carried out under Package 3 of Reach 5 of Metro Phase-II, the structure will rise to a height of 35 metres and its maximum width will be 43 metres, said Deputy Chief Engineer N Sadashiva. The flyover will have six levels with the underpass being constructed below the ground level, he said.
The underpass from Bannerghatta Road to Diary Circle will have two lanes, permitting two-way traffic. The surface road between R V Road and Central Silk Board (CSB) will come up with four lanes, two in each direction.
The flyover runs 3.2 km between Ragigudda and CSB and the concourse area houses the Jayanagar Interchange Metro station. Rail lines (R5) will link R V Road and Electronics City and Bannerghatta and Nagawara (R6).
“The cost comes to Rs 797 crore for the Package 3 of Reach 5. This will also include five stations of the Metro line from R V Road to CSB, viz. R V Road, Ragigudda, Jayadeva Interchange, BTM Layout and Central Silk Board. We had a deadline of June 2021 for the construction part of the project, but it is now expected to be in place by December 2021 on account of COVID delays,” Sadashiva said. This refers only to the construction activity and the actual lines will take a year more to the commission, he added.