[rocksterraghu]

Originally Posted by Mayavi

I
It is not the flyover itself, but the scaffolding built to support it during construction which came down bringing a part of flyover down along with it. AFAIk, and the pictures support this, scaffolding is usually a metal structure and there cannot be 'bad quality' of scaffolding material, just bad design. This also explains the loud blast like noise which is the structuring crumbling under stress, common before any structure comes down.

Mayavi, I'm sure you know what the traffic density is like at Punjagutta. I have lived in Somajiguda for a year and Banjara Hills for the same duration. I've never seen another junction, may I add, as pathetically managed as that.

(I'll go a little OT here. There is no right turn from anywhere to anywhere. So when people have to take a right, they don't go that extra mile and take a U-turn, they stop in the middle of the junction, turn right a wee-bit, back-up a little and wait with the traffic coming from their left and move straight when the signal permits. People keep moving even when the signal goes red and the cops literally stand in the way. This way, the junction has people everywhere, all the time.)

When the construction company knows that it is building it there, they should be extra careful. Not just extra, as careful as they can get. Whether it is the planning or implementation, the fault lies with the company.

I called the situation premature because everyone seemed to blame it on the rains and there could have been other reason(s).

Originally Posted by normally_crazy

Hand in glove maybe ? I am guessing here. besides the media hasn't exactly gone boombastic about this...but if it was Sunju Baba catching a cold - it would have been all over the news channels and newspapers.

I totally agree. They give a rat's a$$ to safety on roads (in whatever way), don't they? Some newspapers (like TOI) are better off having a supplement showing all the glamour dolls and minimal dressing. Why can't they feature something like this in detail? I guess we all know why.

The Andhra Pradesh government on Monday ordered the suspension of three engineers for negligence, in connection with the collapse of an under-construction flyover at Punjagutta.

The government has also decided to pay compensation to those people whose vehicles were damaged in the incident and who don't have insurance cover

from: Probe ordered in H'bad flyover collapse
Wow! Am I impressed or what!

[srishiva]

If the flyover was being built using pre-fabricated sections, why do you need scaffolding. The pillars are first constructed and then the pre-fab structures are placed over it.
Scaffolding is used if its not a pre-fab and the scaffolding needs to be present until the structure above connecting two pillars cures.
This latter is how they did in Bengaluru on airport road. It was present for more than a month and thousands passed below it.
We used to lament that this is a really low-tech company (UP bridge construction). This is the reason it took years to build the flyover.

[Mayavi]

Originally Posted by srishiva

If the flyover was being built using pre-fabricated sections, why do you need scaffolding. The pillars are first constructed and then the pre-fab structures are placed over it.

I found this in a Hindu new report

But allaying such fears, engineers say that one need not find fault with the technology. Sunday’s mishap was apparently due to the heavy rain resulting in the loosening and sinking of soil near the base of the supporting girders erected to launch the pre-cast segments and that could have led to the collapse of the supporting steel structures.


The Elevated Expressway being executed by HUDA is different from the Punjagutta flyover, in that the girders for launching segments would not take ground support. The launching girder in this technology is perched on the solidly constructed piers with deep foundation.