Traffic on Manor Wada road stopped after truck crash damages Pinjal bridge

PALGHAR: The district administration on Monday barred vehicles from crossing the Pinjal River bridge near Manor Wada Road in Palghar after a truck crashed into the walls of the 70-year-old dilapidated bridge.
Manor Wada road serves as a vital thoroughfare for vehicles travelling from Wada, Bhiwandi, Nasik, Kalyan, Sahapur, Kasara, Khodala, and Jawhar to and from Mumbai Ahmedabad National Highway. Given its strategic connectivity to various industrial and warehouse establishments, it witnesses heavy usage by cargo vehicles.
Officials from the Public Works Department (PWD) on Monday examined the bridge after which it was decided to close the bridge for vehicular movement to undertake major repairs, which are likely to take at least three months.
All vehicular traffic was halted on Manor Wada highway around 8.30pm on March 31, after the PWD engineers felt it necessary to check the strength of the affected arc of a bridge across Pinjal river, as it was visibly damaged after a heavy vehicle dashed the wall of the bridge Sunday evening.
This bridge is about 1.2 km from Manor Ten Naka situated on Mumbai Ahmedabad National Highway (NH-48) and the state highway is used by NH 48 commuters to travel to Bhiwandi, Nasik and Kalyan.
On Monday, Vikas Ramgude, chief engineer, Bridge Designs Circle of PWD along with superintendent engineer Siddhart Tambe inspected the bridge. During the inspection, the bridge walls were found damaged, but the main arc was found to be in good condition. They said the 70-year-old bridge was overburdened due to successive layers of repairing material put up on it over time and therefore it was decided to remove the extra layers and repair the side walls as well.
The road was constructed on Build-operate-transfer (BOT) basis, but the contractor allegedly neglected maintaining the bridge after which the BOT contract was cancelled and PWD had initiated the repairs of this bridge. The repair work is expected to take at least three months and vehicular traffic will not be allowed on the bridge till then, the officers said. They added that an alternate arrangement will be made for two and three-wheelers and light motor vehicles through an old and small bridge, but the heavy vehicles will have to take a much longer route to cross the river – from Charoti – Kasa – Vikramgarh and Pali.
The officers added that a parallel bridge on the river is under construction, but the work has been halted due to issues in acquisition of some forest land and the PWD officials said they would expedite the construction of the new bridge also.
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