Omkareshwar (Madhya Pradesh): In a bid to start the movement of heavy vehicles on Mortakka bridge on Narmada River on the Indore-Icchapur highway, the bridge’s strength is being meticulously tested by the National Highways Authority of India (NHAI). In this regard, vehicular movement was restricted for three months on the bridge.
On Thursday, a team of engineers from SGSITS Indore began load testing of the bridge. Notably, due to the flood in Narmada River during the rainy season, the bridge was damaged as it remained submerged in water for two days. The repair work took about a month. Before the NHAI started vehicular movement on the bridge, it was inspected by the technical team of SGSITS. After examining the aged bridge, the team recommended stopping the movement of vehicles with a capacity of more than 10 tonnes. As per the reports presented by NHAI, the district administration banned the movement of heavy vehicles from the bridge.
As a result, heavy vehicles transporting diesel-petrol, gas cylinders and other materials were facing an additional trip of about 100 km to travel from Indore to Deshgaon via Khargone. However, the local traders have demanded the administration to start movement of heavy vehicles from Mortakka Bridge.
On the first day of the three-day long load testing of the bridge, the frequency of vibration occurring on the bridge was measured by a vibration analyser by removing the dumpers as per the load capacity. The testing of the bridge was started by a team of expert professors under the guidance of Dr Vijay Rode, HoD of civil engineering department of SGSITS and Prof Vivek Tiwari.
Dr Rode said, “The frequency of vibration caused by heavy vehicles on the bridge were measured using vibration analysers. After this, dumpers passed on the second day on Friday.” “Along with this, by placing vibration analysers at different places on the bridge, the load or deflection on the bridge will be measured," Dr Rode added.
