News: Safety worries after fresh cracks on Dwarka Expressway-01-08-2021
GURUGRAM: Fresh cracks have appeared on the deck slab of an under-construction elevated segment of the Dwarka Expressway, sparking concerns about the possibility of a repeat of the incident that occurred in March, when an under-construction portion of the expressway had collapsed and injured three workers.
The cracks have been witnessed in the deck slab between pillars 120 and 121 near Daultabad flyover. A large crack running across the slab from one end to the other has revealed iron rods and construction material.
National Highways Authority of India (NHAI) said its project contractor, Larsen & Toubro (L&T), is currently carrying out a re-stimulation test to determine the strength of the slab. The cracks have been deliberately created to carry out a detailed analysis of the slab’s strength-bearing capacity, a senior NHAI official told TOI.
“Work on the elevated segment was put on hold to get to the root of the problem that led to the unfortunate collapse of one of the segments in March. The crack that we are talking about is part of our resimulation process, in which a certain portion of the slab is re-examined to analyse the spacing of iron rods and evaluate the load-bearing capacity of the construction material,” the official said.
L&T too said this is just a “regular exercise” being carried out before it submits a report to the NHAI over the strength of the structure.
