CHENNAI: Southern Railway on Thursday completed the installation of six steel girders, each weighing 75 tonnes, on the under-construction Rail Over Rail (ROR) bridge at St Thomas Mount, as part of the final leg of the five-km Velachery - St Thomas Mount MRTS Phase II project.
On Monday, three steel girders were launched, and subsequently, another three were placed on the ROR bridge structure on Thursday. These girders were positioned above the four railway lines, consisting of two slow and two fast lines, as part of the ROR bridge, which forms the foundation for the line connecting St Thomas Mount to the new terminal station of Phase II MRTS.
The last 500m of the MRTS extension work between Adambakkam and St Thomas Mount station is nearing completion, and the line is scheduled for commissioning next year, according to official sources.
Each girder measures 50m in length and 3.1m in height. A dedicated team of 100 engineering crew members were engaged in the work.
A railway official said, “The work is crucial for the commissioning of MRTS phase II. The CMRL’s phase-2 metro line from Madhavaram to Sholinganallur will run above the new MRTS line. The six steel girders will be joined together using cross-bracing. Afterwards, the casting of a concrete slab that connects all the girders will be carried out,” said an official. The CMRL is expected to install their girders on top of this structure by the end of the year.
To facilitate the work, nine local trains were cancelled between 10:55 pm to 2:55 am on November 1 and November 3, and three express trains were partially cancelled between Egmore and Tambaram.