The iconic Chenab Bridge, the world's highest railway bridge and a part of the Udhampur-Srinagar-Baramulla rail link project, is nearing completion as the overarch deck will soon be completed with the golden joint.
This achievement will be a significant leap towards completing the 111-km-long winding stretch from Katra to Banihal.
So far, 93 deck segments have simultaneously been launched from both ends of the valley and five are in progress. Each segment weighs about 85 tonnes.
Their ends will meet to complete the bridge overarch deck, where segments will be joined with High Strength Friction Grip (HSFG) bolts to mark the golden joint, reports The Indian Express.
"This golden joint will usher in a golden moment in the history of the Indian Railways, and will become a golden chapter in the history of Jammu and Kashmir. The construction was completely done by Indian engineers, which makes the Chenab Railway Bridge a symbol of Atmanirbhar Bharat," said Giridhar Rajagopalan, Deputy Managing Director of Afcons.
"Considering the treacherous hilly terrain, a temporary launching platform with segment lifting capacity of 120 MT & for a height of about 39m was designed. We developed and implemented several innovative methods to overcome the challenges of the hilly terrain for successfully executing our launching activities," Giridhar added.
He praised Konkan Railway Corporation Limited (KRCL) for constructing all the access roads to the project site.
Once completed, this bridge will loom over the treacherous Chenab, flowing some 359 metres below.
This bridge is 1,315 metres long and is the highest railway bridge in the world, being 359 metres above the river bed level. It will be 35 meters higher than the iconic Eiffel Tower in Paris.
Construction of the Bridge involved the fabrication of 28,660 MT steel, 10 Lakh Cum Earthwork, 66,000 Cum Concrete and 26 Km motorable roads.
In April 2021, the arch closure was completed. The overall weight of Arch is 10,619 MT.
The bridge will be equipped with modern sensors that will detect the speed of the wind. The movement of the train will be stopped as soon as the wind speed exceeds 90 kmph.
Once built, the bridge will dwarf the 275m-high Beipan river Shuibai bridge in China.
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