On Saturday night, a 31-metre, single-span U-girder for the Bengaluru Suburban Rail Project (BSRP) was successfully cast for the first time in the country at the casting yard in Devanahalli.
Other metro projects have used 28-metre U-girders, according to Infrastructure Development Minister M.B. Patil. This is the first time in the country that 31-metre U-girders will be used for BSRP.
“These girders will be used to construct a viaduct (elevated section) of around 8 km from Hebbal to Yeshwanthpur which is a part of the Mallige line or Corridor 2 of BSRP,” the official said.
The Rail Infrastructure Development Company (Karnataka) Limited (K-Ride) stated in a release that each of these U-girders, which allow the track to be placed immediately, is made of 69.5 cubic metres of M60 grade concrete and weighs 178 tonnes, and Corridor 2 requires 450 of these U-girders.
“This 31m U-girder, billed as an engineering marvel, was designed by Assystem STUP for BSRP and proof-tested by IIT-Madras.” A general consultant (a joint venture of Egis, Aecom, and WSP) performed a third-party design evaluation. K-RIDE “closely monitored the entire supervision, precision execution, and quality control,” according to the announcement.