MUMBAI: On Wednesday morning, the last girder connecting the Mumbai Coastal Road (south) to the Bandra Worli Sea Link (BWSL) was launched. According to engineers on site and civic authorities involved in the works, this span erection was critical considering the float-over method adopted for launching, where the barge is in motion owing to tides and waves.
This marks the last connection of the two bridges, which go from the coastal road (south) to BWSL. With this, works on laying the road will begin in order to open the stretch to motorists by early next year. Currently, the southbound side of the bridge, which is already connected to the BWSL, is being used for northbound traffic. Once the northbound bridge is completed, it will be used for northbound traffic, while the existing southbound bridge will be used for southbound traffic.
The 60-metre span weighed approximately 585 MT. It was dispatched from the Karanja Port in Navi Mumbai at 1.45 pm on November 19 and arrived at the Worli coast road site at 10 pm the same day.
While the plan was to install it on November 24, it was pushed to November 27 owing to unfavourable weather conditions. On Wednesday, the erection began at 8.15 am and was completed by 10.34 am.
The works on this portion of the coastal road bridge are being executed by Hindustan Construction Co Ltd. Officials said that while a few spans are pending, which will be connected to the arch bridge, they are not part of the main bridge but are part of a connector supposed to take traffic from the Prabhadevi side towards Bandra via the coastal bridge.
The 120m (arch bridge) and 46m (adjoining BWSL) spans were already erected in April this year. In the first week of November, the 44m span was erected, while 60 metres was the last span left, which has now been erected.