[abhi]

Originally Posted by adi_gt

Why they just don't allow people to leave without paying toll for one freaking day ? How much difference will it make ? The concept in India is to squeeze as much as you can untill people explode which they never do.

There was a 3-minute rule for toll waiver and an RTI filed for it. But, NHAI went back and said that there is no such rule, unfortunately.

http://www.financialexpress.com/indi...h-rule/772126/

[TorqueyTechie]

Heard from a friend of mine that there was huge traffic pile up from Nimhans flyover all the way until crossing St.Johns signal today morning. Checked the BTP's twitter handle and this is what I see.



This is due to the white topping that they have started from Checkpost signal until St.Johns signal. Traffic from Hosur road (from christ college side) and from forum, kormanagala side are merging into a single lane. Expect huge traffic gridlocks for few more days/weeks.

The twitter handle is full of pics & information about multiple road blocks/traffic congestion due to road work. Election time and the work starts at full pace without any proper planning.

1. Work on the ORR has started from kasturinagar till hebbal.



2. BWSSB work in koramanagala near Shanti sagar junction.



3. BETL joins the party.

[vidyanand]

Originally Posted by TorqueyTechie

3. BETL joins the party.

At least they did not start at 5 AM today. Buses and trucks were still running on the BETL from Silk Board today morning around 8:30 AM. Any I still do not see RED on Google Maps Traffic.
Can anyone confirm if they have stopped buses from Silk Board side?

[audioholic]

Looks like there is some activity going on the ORR going towards Hebbal from KR Pura. It has caused traffic from Whitefield, Marathahalli and KR Pura to stagnate and difficult to manage. If this is because of the white topping activity, then it's definitely something that will give a terrific time to people commuting in this stretch.

[procrj]

Originally Posted by audioholic

If this is because of the white topping activity, then it's definitely something that will give a terrific time to people commuting in this stretch.

Looks like it when I look at gmaps. Mega jam all the way to Kasturinagar after which its green all the way till yeshwantpur.

[nagarjun]

Originally Posted by audioholic

Looks like there is some activity going on the ORR going towards Hebbal from KR Pura. It has caused traffic from Whitefield, Marathahalli and KR Pura to stagnate and difficult to manage. If this is because of the white topping activity, then it's definitely something that will give a terrific time to people commuting in this stretch.

Yes this is in fact the white topping effect. They have closed the main carriage way between the flyover after tin factory and Ramamurthy Nagar underpass. This is going to be like that for the next two months at least.

[msdivy]

Originally Posted by srishiva

The Chord Road in Vijayanagar is being white topped ! Now this road is smooth yet sees tar topping every year or so. I am sure it was topped a few months ago. Now its all being dug up to do white topping.

Originally Posted by adi_gt

After the steel flyover fiasco the govt. had to give some contracts to collect funds for the impending elections. The best way was to give unnecessary contracts and make money to fund the campaign.

Quite agree with these assertions. The white topping task has been brutal on the commuters. Nobody in their sane mind would put the citizens through this hassle. Imagine 3 lane ORR converging into 2 lane service road, which is some stretches turn into a single lane and wait, there is traffic from opposite side - all recipe for disaster. Bangalore weather does not need the white topping. A good layer of tar will do. I am not convinced of the workmanship. Sometime in 2010, the concrete lobby, as a pilot white topped the one km stretch of Hosur Road between St John junction and Ayyappa Temple near Madiwala. This is supposed to have a lifespan of around 30 years. Sure this stretch does not have potholes. But the road is not smooth - there are a lot of undulations. Doesn't seem like a highway road. Hope the finish on ORR is better.

Metro blue line is planned as phase 2 extension for ORR. I feel BMRCL will dig up the white-topped stretch.

[dark.knight]

Concretization of roads (even the silly white topping) costs Rs.7.8 crore per kilometer, bitumen costs about Rs.27 lakh per kilometer (about 29 times less). Concrete white topping is claimed to have a pothole-free life of about 30 years, which means that tar relaying is only as expensive if they lay the road once per year for 30 years (touch-ups and pothole filling will be significantly less expensive).

On average, tar roads are relaid once in 4-5 years approximately and the good ones like the 29 roads they've taken up for white-topping need only small patch-ups every few months, it really was going good that way. Also concrete roads once laid give a very rough, bumpy and yet poor grip ride over them, we all know that tyres take maximum damage over the ultra-hard concrete roads. Tructyre.co.uk says that tyre life will reduce by over 20% on concrete roads. Almost all agree that concrete is best used in straight highways for more endurance and greater resistance while tar is recommended for smaller roads and country areas because it offers more grip, better stopping distance and better turnability.

If we had rants about Bangalore roads thus far, the big-brother state has upped the game so much that even every rant of this 1000+ pages combined cannot describe the situation that is happening today. The public as usual have accepted their fate and decided to either move to work early and come back late or to move at the same time and take part in miles and miles of festivities called jam-boree.

So here we have it, white-topping is neither cost-effective, nor is its process of laying easy.. lets imagine 10 lakh vehicles bumper to bumper passing along the routes of such roads and also imagine a drop of 20% fuel efficiency per litre.. everyone is consuming 2 litres more per 10 liters and for 1 lakh litres filled up, 20,000 is wasted just for this reason.

Yet, the newspapers and BBMP combined have succinctly described the situation as below :

"White topping underway, jams likely for 8-10 months"

[hemanth.anand]

Originally Posted by dark.knight

"White topping underway, jams likely for 8-10 months"

Added to all these, concrete roads reduce water percolation compared to bitumen leading to lesser levels of already depleted ground water


There is a proverb in Kannada which means that an oil lamp burns brighter just before burning out. The current Government suddenly taking up these "Development works" on a war footage in the last 3 months reminds me of that proverb. And what can I do about it? Nothimg more than just rant about it on TBHP

[srishiva]

Originally Posted by msdivy

Quite agree with these assertions. The white topping task has been brutal on the commuters. Nobody in their sane mind would put the citizens through this hassle. Imagine 3 lane ORR converging into 2 lane service road, which is some stretches turn into a single lane and wait, there is traffic from opposite side - all recipe for disaster. Bangalore weather does not need the white topping. A good layer of tar will do. I am not convinced of the workmanship. Sometime in 2010, the concrete lobby, as a pilot white topped the one km stretch of Hosur Road between St John junction and Ayyappa Temple near Madiwala. This is supposed to have a lifespan of around 30 years. Sure this stretch does not have potholes. But the road is not smooth - there are a lot of undulations. Doesn't seem like a highway road. Hope the finish on ORR is better.

Metro blue line is planned as phase 2 extension for ORR. I feel BMRCL will dig up the white-topped stretch.

I think the Madiwala road was real white topping. Cement layer over tar road I think. The cement lobby was asking all roads to be given that treatment.

Here I found the link to the same. It was done in a week or so
http://www.dnaindia.com/bangalore/re...galore-1419554

The current one is re-inforced with steel concrete.

[mazda4life]

Had an absolute nightmare commuting from ecospace to Jayanagar yesterday. Took the Madiwala route and came inside SG palya trying to outwit blore traffic and guess all had the same idea. What an horrendous experience to say the least exacerbated by rogue auto guys driving all over the place and violating each and every norm of being civilised.

[aspire]

A trailer has broken down on the city flyover, above kudlu gate, then at the Lay Bye they have blocked a small section of the road on the right for the expansion joint work.
Buses and heavy vehicles are allowed, they are yet to start diverting traffic to the other side, so not much blocks expected.

[TorqueyTechie]

Originally Posted by mazda4life

Had an absolute nightmare commuting from ecospace to Jayanagar yesterday. Took the Madiwala route and came inside SG palya trying to outwit blore traffic and guess all had the same idea. What an horrendous experience to say the least exacerbated by rogue auto guys driving all over the place and violating each and every norm of being civilised.

SG palya is chaotic as is and now because of the mess created by concretization it will be even more chaotic. I suggest you to take the regular St.Johns->forum->Christ College->Nimhans flyover route. It is more orderly traffic and it thins out after crossing christ college.

After that if goind towards 3rd/4th block the best bet would be to take the left at the signal after getting down the Nimhans flyover.


Else if Jayanagar 1st block, 2nd block is your destination continue straight and take a left at the Siddapura signal and proceed towards Ashoka pillar.

[dark.knight]

Originally Posted by hemanth.anand

. And what can I do about it? Nothimg more than just rant about it on TBHP

I'm sure that in its formation, democracy stood for continuous evaluation, open criticism and ability to protest governmental decisions without being criticized or ostracized in return.. however in its mutated form democracy stands for absolute acceptance and zero criticism of governmental reforms once the said act of voting a party in, is done. The public also accept this fallacy and remain in strict obeisance of current rulers however much damage might be done to them in return. Maybe we should all consider allowing democracy to return to its original roots where the public in lakhs collectively decide what should be done rather than leave it in the hands of a few hundred bureaucrats and planners.

Originally Posted by mazda4life

Had an absolute nightmare commuting from ecospace to Jayanagar yesterday. Took the Madiwala route and came inside SG palya trying to outwit blore traffic and guess all had the same idea. What an horrendous experience to say the least exacerbated by rogue auto guys driving all over the place and violating each and every norm of being civilised.

One word of advice for you and everyone else attempting to find ways and shotcuts to their homes or offices at any point of time - this situation is unprecedented in Bangalore's history, for the first time no shortcuts are working and every lane or approach that seems empty at first later one becomes the biggest mistake one can make, ask Pandora. For the first time we're completely defeated and every diversion ends up clogging the same bottleneck twice over and slowing down the traffic even more.

Take the widest, straightest and most direct route manned by police personnel, it will be clogged and slow all through but it's much more easier and direct. I fortunately take a frely available route to office that is over 11 kms just to avoid the clogged route which is just 4 kms, timing wise both work out to just over an hour, but I rather keep moving than face the horror of bikes, buses and autos swishing in and out, almost everyday I see 4-5 bumps and scrapes of other vehicles and they carry on like nothing happened.

[TorqueyTechie]

Bengalurians, brace for more white topping menace on the roads. According to this article from Bangalore Mirror in the next four days work on nine of the important roads like Bannerghatta Road, Sarjapura Road, ORR connecting to Tumkur Road (Old Madras Road via Hebbal Flyover to KR Puram), ITPL Road, and Hope Farm to Bellandur (via Kadugodi) will be starting.

Quoting from the article :

Engineers at the Palike claim that entire project for all the identified roads may be finished in about 11 months even though the Chief Minister has given the deadline to complete this between February and March.

An official from the Palike said: “The work is going on smoothly. We will start on the next batch in a week. We are currently in talks with the traffic police department. Soon after getting permission from them, we will start the work.”

In reference to the works being carried out at the Outer Ring Road, Tumkur Road and Goraguntepalya, the engineer said that the main problem was moving utilities [BWSSB and BESCOM]. “Also, all the roads along these junctions are interconnected. So, there is no way out. Disruption in traffic is expected,” he said, adding that “this is the only option we have”.

Totally 29 roads were identified by BBMP for white topping and the plan is to complete it in two phases. The complete list is as below:




Some of the roads identified see huge amount of traffic at most part of the day and it would be a nightmare during the peak hours. As for me, the entire area surrounding my home is planned for white topping. I would be on road for close to 5 hours everyday I guess from the current 2 to 2.5 hours.