An inquiry has been ordered against contractor Ashish Construction Co, the architect of the bridge over Kaveri, which was in news owing to subsidence of the surface.
The eight-year-old bridge connects Udach, Antalia and the Bilimora Road.
Jignesh Shah, deputy city engineer, AMC, was quoted as saying by a leading daily, “Ashish Bridge Con, which is presently constructing the Makarba flyover, was earlier Ashish Construction Co that built the bridge that subsided in Navsari. The contractor changed the name in 2018 and was awarded the Makarba flyover contract based on its previous experience in bridge construction.”
According to the report, the Roads and Buildings department (R&B) has appointed SVNIT’s civil engineering department to conduct a detailed inquiry into the Kaveri bridge subsidence.
The SVNIT report, accessed by the national daily, highlights that details in the form of geotechnical (soil testing) investigation report and structural details like dimensions, the size of piles and pile caps were not provided to them.
Furthermore, it adds that the ultrasonic pulse velocity tests, conducted by NABL and certified by Mattest Engineering, brought to light that five of the eight pile caps tested were of doubtful quality. The other three were of medium quality.
Even the same tests, when conducted on the eight pillars of the Navsari flyover, revealed that five of the eight piers were below the desired standards. The other two were of medium quality.
The SVNIT document, the daily highlighted, has pointed out to the bore log profile of the site under the settled Pillar 1, which showed a one-metre thick layer of silty sand.
A senior R&B official, who wasn’t named, was quoted as saying, “There is a strong possibility that the piles shown in the approved design and the drawings may not have been cast properly at site. The last 3m of the piles were supposed to be anchored in rock. It seems that has not been done properly.”
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