[rahul4640]

Originally Posted by Wanderers

Patna-Bakhtiyarpur now is a excellent 4 lane toll road. Should not take more than 45 minutes.

Thanks mate. Though I did not have a stopwatch to count the travel time, I may safely say that it possibly took even a few minutes less.

Originally Posted by Wanderers

While going towards Hajipur, you can minimize the bridge crossing time by travelling to Patna city, instead of sticking to the bypass road to bridge. Join back on bridge at beginning of the bridge as if you are coming from Patna city. Today is the beginning of Sonpur Fair and expect the bridge to be crowded.

Sorry I did not do it. But you will be surprised to know that the bridge was almost clear of traffic, when I reached there. It was on 26th of this month, at around 11-00 Hrs. May be that the traffic on the bridge was monitored by the traffic cell due to the ongoing Sonepur mela. Took me just half an hour, approximately. Lots of police on the bridge. Unfortunately the next 5-6 KM after clearing the bridge, just to reach the Gandak river bridge the road was like hell and took me over 90 minutes to travel.

Originally Posted by Wanderers

As the Patna-Bakhtiyapur is really good, there is no point taking Mokamah Bridge. Rajendra Setu at Mokamah is in no good shape either plus you need to travel extra kms.

Thanks a lot again for your suggestion. It is due to your advice that I did not take that route.

[BoneCollector]

Had gone to Patna for some work and came back yesterday. The condition of bridge is still the same, although the traffic management is better now. Uploading a few snaps and videos from last trip. Please ignore the audio in clips.

https://youtu.be/ChnEDeOgN2k

In this video, you can see the way the spans move. The movements have increased since last few years.

https://youtu.be/Ry531ZR9g18

In this video, the damaged superstructure is on the left side.

The images show the traffic jam on the Patna side with all heavy vehicles waiting to enter onto the bridge.

[BoneCollector]

Unaware today, I came to Patna for some work and then I saw in news that one of the pillars has sunk in. Checked and found that a span has sunk and not the pillar. Attaching a link of the news. Please DO NOT translate into English as it'll be hilariously bad!

http://m.jagran.com/bihar/patna-city...-14141372.html

[BoneCollector]

Earlier news reports were as usual full of unconfirmed news. There is no damage to the span or pillar but the expansion joint had caved in leading to total chaos. More details here -

http://www.telegraphindia.com/116061...p#.V1zq96BX7qA


I hope we get an early resolution as this bridge is the sole link between North Bihar and Patna. If traffic is stopped on this, the next route will be too long, via Barauni. Total distance would be then 99KMS from Muzaffarpur to Barauni and another 122KMS from Barauni to Patna, a total of 221 kms. Regular route via Gandhi setu is about 75 KMS.


I'll post more details when I cross it again today, hopefully should not take much time.

[BoneCollector]

The recent news is that a Pontoon bridge has been started parallel to the main bridge to ease the traffic. It might lead to lessening of traffic on the bridge but its too early to comment. The pontoon bridge might not be available during the monsoons as the Ganges is too wide during it.

Iron girders have been fixed to attach the barricades as the bridge is in process of renovation - dismantling and laying of steel super-structure.

[BoneCollector]

Just had a first hand experience of the pontoon bridge. Thankfully not as scary as I had thought. Will upload more snaps and video once I get back home.

[Dieseltuned]

Is it not a bit too much that this thread was started way back in 2011 and we are in 2017 and the bridge is still not repaired. Does it take 6 years to repair one span of a bridge

[BoneCollector]

Originally Posted by Dieseltuned

Is it not a bit too much that this thread was started way back in 2011 and we are in 2017 and the bridge is still not repaired. Does it take 6 years to repair one span of a bridge

Well, now it's not one span but the whole superstructure has to be dismantled and redone. The new proposal is to replace it with steel superstructure. The work may start after the commissioning of two new bridges in June, the Arrah-Chhapra road bridge and the Digha-Sonepur rail road bridge (rail part is already functional). Let's see when this becomes fully functional again.

This thread did start in 2011 but repair work has been going on since more than 10 years.

[BoneCollector]

It's been long since I updated this thread. I haven't taken this route since over 1 year so I'm solely dependent on updates by Mr. Indrasen Kumar Jaiswal who is a good chap providing regular updates about this bridge as well as other projects around Patna.

https://youtu.be/rQUJ0AikCX8

The work of placing girders has started after removal of the superstructure and modifying the pier caps. If you follow his videos, you'll get regular updates.

[BoneCollector]

Took this bridge on 3rd January after quite some months. The work is progressing at good speed but I doubt if it'll be over by March 2019 end as it's the deadline. Still a lot of work needs to be done. Dismantling is still going on.

This is how the bridge will look once completed.

[Sheel]

Man, this bridge is scary. I was on this bridge approximately 2 months back and traffic had come to a standstill. The entire bridge was shaking, so much so, that few new people like us were starting to pray and call their relatives, but others laughed and said, it is par for the course.

[BoneCollector]

Originally Posted by BoneCollector

The work is progressing at good speed but I doubt if it'll be over by March 2019 end as it's the deadline.

The deadline was extended to June 2019 which has again been extended to December 2019. Work is going on at good pace. Truss work has been done at around 70% of structure. Hopefully this lane would be functional by end of 2019. Details can be seen here in this video. Thanks again to Mr. Indrasen Kumar Jaiswal.

https://youtu.be/13lY4lDbiBM

[BoneCollector]

Took it last Sunday. Truss has been erected on around 90% of the spans. Work is going on in full swing. Hopefully this lane should become operational by December 2019. Work is slow over the river part as there is excess of water flowing these days.

[BoneCollector]

Originally Posted by BoneCollector

Just had a first hand experience of the pontoon bridge. Thankfully not as scary as I had thought. Will upload more snaps and video once I get back home.

The area where pontoon bridge starts is now inundated with flood waters. The bridge is dismantled ahead of monsoons every year in June. Attaching a few snapshots from a video uploaded on YouTube.

The pontoon bridge starts from here where you can see police barricades.

Link

[Sanidhya mukund]

I am from the city of Chapra, which is almost 80 Km from Patna. To make my visits quick, I generally take a flight to Patna and then drive to Chapra. But the dreadful Mahatma Gandhi Setu always makes sure that I almost miss my flight. It's always under repair but never seems to get completed. It always has huge jams. Once, a whole section had just randomly collapsed. I wonder what sort of planning goes into it.