Come January, travelling between Sasthamangalam and Maruthamkuzhi will no longer be a time-consuming affair. Putting a full-stop to delays, the Public Works Department (PWD) is all set to open the new Maruthamkuzhi Bridge across the Killiyar to traffic on January 10. Chief Minister Oommen Chandy will inaugurate the bridge.
Work on shifting a pipeline main to one side, which had caused the delay, has been completed. The PWD is now finishing off the remaining work on the carriageway and the approach roads on either side, PWD executive engineer Rajendra Babu said.
The bridge will ease traffic on the Sasthamangalam-Maruthamkuzhi route, which is sheer hell now for motorists due to the bottle-neck at Maruthamkuzhi Junction, Sasthamangalam ward councillor G Suresh Kumar said.
The bridge is a four-span structure with a length of 26.58 metre. On the Sasthamangalam side, the approach road will be 65 metres long and on the Maruthamkuzhi side 325 metres long, PWD officials said.
Once the bridge is opened, traffic through it and the existing road will be made one way. Vehicles moving from the Sasthamangalm side to the Maruthamkuzhi-Vattiyoorkavu side will be allowed one way traffic through the new bridge.
Originally an 18-year-old project, actual construction of the bridge was undertaken during the previous LDF Government’s tenure. But work lagged owing to delay in shifting a pipeline on the Maruthamkuzhi side. In April last, PWD officials had planned to complete the bridge in two months’ time but it got delayed further.