[ampere]

Originally Posted by joecherian

One update on this route is, for those who stay on OMR/ECR and want to travel to south TN , Thiruporur-Chengalpet is the best option to avoid all the madness on GST atleast till Chengalpet.
And now,the icing on the cake is that the railway overbridge at Chengalpet is open, so one more reason to take this route.

This is good! Great find. How is traffic on OMR/ECR till Thiruporur?

I could have avoided Trichy by taking the deviation at Kulithulai but then thought of having some refreshments and hence took the Trichy route. There is not much difference in distance if you take the Trichy route(10-15 kms max I guess)

You mean avoid via : Kulithalai-Musiri-Thuraiyur-Perambalur?
Also how much time did it take to cross Trichy from NH67 to NH45 ?

I presume you took the following route :

Route Link

[suresh_gs]

Originally Posted by pramodpk

7. Thoppur Ghat was deteriorated and the road has become wavy.

2 weeks back I visited some temples in Omalur, Salem and Erode. Majority of my drive was on the state highways of TN and the thoppur section of NH.

My observation was that the SH's were far more superior and well maintained unlike the NH stretch leading to thoppur toll. You are spot on with your observation

[joecherian]

Originally Posted by ampere

This is good! Great find. How is traffic on OMR/ECR till Thiruporur?

You mean avoid via : Kulithalai-Musiri-Thuraiyur-Perambalur?
Also how much time did it take to cross Trichy from NH67 to NH45 ?

I presume you took the following route :

OMR - thiruporur is not an issue. Only bottleneck can be kelambakkam but then I haven't spend more than 10 minutes (worst case) to cross kelambakkam and that too only once.

In Trichy, I took this route
https://www.google.co.in/maps/dir/10...!4e1!3e0?hl=en

for those whose who want to take Kulithalai-Musiri-Thuraiyur-Perambalur, the left turn is bit tricky.

Around 2-3 kms before the turn, the road forks to right (narrow road which goes to kulithalai and the wider road goes straight.
I thought I could take the wider road but then further down, could see that the road from Kulithalai passes over this wider road and hence no option there to take the left.

I could have gone back and then took the narrow road to kulithalai and then on to the bridge but then decided against so that I can carry on till Trichy to have some refreshments

[binand]

Originally Posted by joecherian

OMR - thiruporur is not an issue. Only bottleneck can be kelambakkam but then I haven't spend more than 10 minutes (worst case) to cross kelambakkam and that too only once.

Hmm. Countless are the times I have been stuck within Kelambakkam town. Crossing over to GST Road via Kelambakkam-Vandalur is my preferred option, as this turn-off is before the traffic sensitive areas of Kelambakkam.

Thiruporur town has the temple traffic; been stuck here too couple of times.

Google Maps shows a road from Mambakkam on the Kelambakkam-Vandalur road that joins the Thiruporur-Chengalpattu road; this might combine the best aspects of both the routes.

[arjithin]

Originally Posted by silversteed

Expansion joints have a steel frame-sort of thing, but the slabs that I mentioned are clearly visible because of the greyish colour of concrete. There might be expansion joints also, but not conspicuous on this particular area. However, they are very much visible and felt on the properly asphalted surface of the flyovers.

I looked closely at these humps when I crossed them last week. These speed breakers are created at the edges of some sort of bridges which connect two pieces of road. There is an expansion joint/gap (and steel frame) in all of these. They always occur in pairs( both sides of bridges).

Couldnt understand why there are level differences between the road and concrete bridge; any one ??

[darklord]

NH-17 developmental plans dropped

Kozhikode: The National Highways Authority of India (NHAI) has dropped the development of NH 17 from Karnataka borders to Kuttippuram. NHAI has already given report citing since the land available for the four lane stretch development could not be made available it is not viable to continue with the project. The 318 kilometre stretch from Thalappady to Kuttippuram were planned to conduct in three phases with 303 hectare of land needed in the first phase from Kannur to Vengalam. In the second phase 257 hectare of land needed from Kannur to Vengalam. Since the land acquisition has faced with problems NHAI is planning to drop the project alleging the negligence of the state government's non-cooperation led to the situation.

http://mathrubhuminews.in/ee/ReadMor...lans-dropped/E

[Rajeevraj]

Hartal in Kerala tomorrow (Thursday) due to the Mullaperiyar verdict which is in favor of TN. Was planning to drive down tomorrow. Have to push it now.

[mpksuhas]

Originally Posted by darklord

[b]NH-17 developmental plans dropped

This is strange. Only two weeks back (27 April) there was notification from NHAI in same paper, Mathrubhoomi asking landowners to contact them. This was for section between Thalaserry & Koyilandy.

[PatienceWins]

Originally Posted by Rajeevraj

Hartal in Kerala tomorrow (Thursday) due to the Mullaperiyar verdict which is in favor of TN. Was planning to drive down tomorrow. Have to push it now.

Even I was planning to ride to Kerala. No political party has supported the bandh call. So it may not be active. I am planning to start at 6 PM today as I need to be in Cochin by Friday.

[naveen.raju]

Originally Posted by Rajeevraj

Hartal in Kerala tomorrow (Thursday) due to the Mullaperiyar verdict which is in favor of TN. Was planning to drive down tomorrow. Have to push it now.

Originally Posted by PatienceWins

Even I was planning to ride to Kerala. No political party has supported the bandh call. So it may not be active. I am planning to start at 6 PM today as I need to be in Cochin by Friday.

As per the latest news, there's no hartal and no political parties are supporting. Private bus will continue to run tomorrow as per their reports and AFAIK only Idukki district will participate. Better check the flash news for latest updates.

[NPV]

Wanted to share an update on NH 209, saw this on my way back from Ooty to Bangalore via Chamarajanagar-Kollegal-Malavalli-Kanakapura:

2 nicely plastered walls, one covering left half of the road and other a short distance away covering right half of road (like the steel barricades put up by cops to slow vehicles down) are being built on both sides of the narrow cauvery bridge (which is between Shivanasamudra junction and Talakkad/Somnathpura junction) on NH209

There were some Zilla Panchayat boards nearby as well so I'm guessing they've done this after a recent accident/other incident but this seems so much more dangerous now since it restricts proper view ahead when accessing the bridge from both sides

[binaiks]

Originally Posted by NPV

2 nicely plastered walls, one covering left half of the road and other a short distance away covering right half of road (like the steel barricades put up by cops to slow vehicles down) are being built on both sides of the narrow cauvery bridge (which is between Shivanasamudra junction and Talakkad/Somnathpura junction) on NH209

Oh! So they've built a wall itself? Last month they had kept some metal barrels in the same shape. There is a very low height barrier as well. The one on the Shivanasamudra side was tall enough to let a 407 pass through - but the one on the other side was really low! I saw 407's getting stuck there - on both my ways.

[Rajeevraj]

Originally Posted by naveen.raju

As per the latest news, there's no hartal and no political parties are supporting. Private bus will continue to run tomorrow as per their reports and AFAIK only Idukki district will participate. Better check the flash news for latest updates.

Thanks Naveen. Any other updates you saw? From the info I have it seems like the hartal is on but impact is expected to be minimal.

[NPV]

Originally Posted by binaiks

There is a very low height barrier as well. The one on the Shivanasamudra side was tall enough to let a 407 pass through - but the one on the other side was really low! I saw 407's getting stuck there - on both my ways.

The metal barrier to restrict height on the shivanasamudram side is still there and a Force Traveler with luggage rack could not pass through it so I guess no change from the time you saw it.

[arjithin]

Originally Posted by NPV

Wanted to share an update on NH 209, saw this on my way back from Ooty to Bangalore via Chamarajanagar-Kollegal-Malavalli-Kanakapura:

2 nicely plastered walls, one covering left half of the road and other a short distance away covering right half of road (like the steel barricades put up by cops to slow vehicles down) are being built on both sides of the narrow cauvery bridge (which is between Shivanasamudra junction and Talakkad/Somnathpura junction) on NH209

Saw this y'day. They removed the tar barrels and replaced with 2 fixed brick walls, spaced around 10m or so, in such a way that heavy vehicles cannot negotiate the gap.

Possibility of a head on collision and of not seeing vehicles coming from other side is there.