Assam’s Saraighat bridge reopened after 3 months of repairs

Guwahati, June 20 (IANS) The historic Saraighat bridge in Assam was reopened for vehicular traffic on Thursday after being closed for repairs for three months.

Northeast Frontier Railway Chief Public Relation Officer P.J. Sharma said on Thursday that the herculean task of complete repair and restoration of the upper deck of the Saraighat rail-cum-road bridge over the mighty Brahmaputra river was completed on Thursday.

"The work for repair started on March 23 this year has been completed in just 89 days. Almost 500 workers were engaged to carry out the technically challenging task of replacing 54 slabs on the upper deck along with replacement of 11 expansion joint slabs and expansion joints," he said.

He said the methods adopted to replace 54 deck slabs and the 11 connecting expansion joints involved breaking down the concrete slabs, expansion joint slabs and removing the expansion joints.

"On an average 75 workers per day were engaged in breaking the slabs and 45 workers per day were engaged in carrying these broken pieces away and cleaning. The repair and replacement of the upper deck slabs of the bridge was particularly difficult because of the fact that train movement on the lower deck was continuing without any disruption," he said.

He said more than 500 tonnes of steel plates and reinforcement rods have been used for the deck slabs alone.

Road markings, painting of side beams, side railings and fixing of signs has been done for improvement of aesthetics, Sharma said.