Assembly Work Begins for Hyderabad Metro’s Oliphant Bridge

Remember the 83m long steel truss bridge that was fabricated and assembled in Noida? That bridge’s parts have now made their way to Hyderabad and are currently being assembled on a 1 acre land parcel in Chiklaguda, just north of the existing Oliphant railway bridge near the Secunderabad railway station.

When assembled by March, the bridge will weigh 1100 MT and link up the adjacent Secunderabad and Mettuguda stations of the 28 km Nagole – Raidurg metro line. To assist with its launch, Larsen & Toubro and its subcontractor, Spacechem Engineers, are simultaneously also setting up a trestle support structure on top of which the bridge will be temporarily supported and pushed.

Recent satellite imagery of the site:

Alignment of the Nagole – Raidurg line at Secunderabad – view Hyderabad Metro map & information

Here’s an extremely crude impression of how the bridge will look like. Note that it will be erected perpendicular to the railway tracks and not as depicted.

Artist’s impression of the Metro’s steel bridge over the Oliphant Bridge – Source: The Hindu

Current Status

Here’s a news report from a Telugu channel showing the bridge being assembled. At the 00:30 mark, look whose map they chose to display 😉

Photo Copyright: Kapil Shastri

Trestle support structure on which the bridge will move – Photo Copyright: Deccan Chronicle

Out of 8 railway crossings by the Hyderabad Metro’s 3 lines in the 72 km Phase 1 project, this is the toughest one of the lot, as the line also makes a sharp turn with a curvature radius of 128 meters. The bridge’s on-site assembly will take another 2 months and in March, L&T and its sub-contractor will slowly start pushing the bridge over its final resting position similar to these bridges in Delhi:

• Work Complete for Delhi Metro’s Truss Bridge at Shakurpur

• Delhi Metro Completes Pushing Truss Bridge at Punjabi Bagh

For more updates, check out the Hyderabad section of The Metro Rail Guy!

– TMRG