BENGALURU: The first set of U-shaped girders, which facilitate the quicker laying of railway tracks, was cast at Doddajala yard on Saturday for one stretch of Bengaluru Metro’s Airport Line. U-girder technology facilitates speedier completion of infrastructure work and has been adopted by Bangalore Metro Rail Corporation Limited both for its Outer Ring Road Line and the K R Puram to Kempegowda International Airport Line in place of the traditional box technology.
The stretch where the girders have been cast now runs for 15.01 km from Air Force station at Yelahanka to Airport Terminal 2 inside the Kempegowda International Airport.
Chief Engineer of Airport Phase-3 package, B C Nataraja, supervising the operations told The New Indian Express, “Two girders, each running to a length of 28 metres were laid today, one in the first half of the day and the second in the evening.” NCC Ltd was contracted with the job in December 2021.
“It is only the casting of the first U-girder that is crucial as it has to clear all the teething and initial testing. The completion of this superstructure work of the first pre-cast girder is a milestone for us. The rest of girders would be readied on a regular basis.”
Asked to explain the technology, another official said that the entire span portion of the viaduct (the portion on which the rails are laid) between two pillars can be laid in a single piece using this technology while many segments need to be laid in the case of the traditional system. “U-girders are pre-cast, pre-tensioned ones which are better in quality too,” he said.
With today’s milestone, the casting of girders for all the three packages of the Airport Line has now been completed. U-girders cast for the package from K R Puram to Kempapura and Kempapura to IAF Yelahanka at their yard at Hennur is yet to be launched.
The first launch of a U-girder has been done only for Outer Ring Road Line at Doddenakundi on June 18 this year. “The span launching of the U- Girders for the stretch leading to the Terminal 2 would be done as soon as the sub structure is completed on the specific span,” Nataraja added.