[AbelAFC]

Originally Posted by KarthikK

Rant on BTM ORR traffic :

Took me a record 55 minutes today for the 3 km stretch from Jayadeva flyover to Silk board. Just out of curiority, I measured the time between the junctions using my stopwatch (yeah I was jobless inside the car).

Jayadeva flyover (sluggish flow from the top itself) to A2B signal - 18 minutes.
A2B signal to Bharti AXA junction - 26 minutes.
Bharti AXA junction to Silk board - 11 minutes.

This is getting ridiculous. Any idea if the road in front of St. Johns signal has been patched up?? Also, how is the road from Domlur HAL airport to Marathahalli?? Has that drainage expansion thing been completed now?? I might quit ORR altogether again.

Sorry I took so long, I forgot to tell you that day.
That road is bad as ever. Avoid it like the plague!

[shankar.balan]

Originally Posted by rohanjf

!
OT: Pondicherry traffic has become really chaotic!

Pondy traffic has always been chaotic, especially in the regular town areas. It is only small spaces in the erstwhile Colonial parts that are relatively traffic free.
End of the day, despite its Colonial flavour and stuff, remember it is a small little town in India with a population of regular blokes leavened out on weekends by a smidgin or a garnish of out-of-towners...

[Soumyajit9]

Am gonna try this on Monday:

[Soumyajit9]

HERE is a nice article to read.

Luckily the article features my current pain, Silk Board junction. But the solution to just repair the roads is just heart-breaking. Can't they try to make one of the four directions, a signal free corridor ? But again, if they start doing it, BTM would choke to death as it would take "n" number of years to complete.

[KarthikK]

Those using Varthur road to commute to / from Whitefield, please avoid using the Varthur lake stretch or Varthur road itself entirely. I was stuck for close to 1.5 hours today morning due to the collapsed bridge in front of the lake road.

https://maps.google.co.in/maps?saddr...sz=17&t=m&z=15

In the map here, point A to point B (towards Whitefield) was jammed entirely.

Important : Point B to point C is the collapsed portion of the bridge which is now closed. Vehicles are forced to take the narrow old bridge next to the collapsed version. Because this older bridge is narrow, cops are alternately allowing some vehicles from each side of traffic, causing traffic snarls from kilometres behind on either side.

For people coming from whitefield towards Sarjapur, the jam extended all the way from point D (Forum value mall) till the bridge.

As usual, morons waiting near Varthur police station had started encroaching on the opposite lane, leading to gridlocks when innocent heavy vehicles approached from the opposite side.

[Soumyajit9]

Originally Posted by KarthikK

Those using Varthur road to commute to / from Whitefield, please avoid using the Varthur lake stretch or Varthur road itself entirely. I was stuck for close to 1.5 hours today morning due to the collapsed bridge in front of the lake road.

OMG !!! So finally the bridge collapsed !!
I was reading a few posts earlier where there were complaints of vibrations and shaking of the bridge. Is this the same bridge ?
So the D-Day came soon.

Hope no one was trapped when the bridge collapsed.

Luckily I am operating out of Ecospace for 3 months now. So I am not travelling to my Whitefield office anymore.

EDIT: A note of appreciation for the BTP cops for handling the situation. I know this is their job and they are paid, but sudden things like this call for extended work under harsh condition and pressure from top.

[KarthikK]

Originally Posted by Soumyajit9

OMG !!! So finally the bridge collapsed !!
I was reading a few posts earlier where there were complaints of vibrations and shaking of the bridge. Is this the same bridge ?
So the D-Day came soon.

Hope no one was trapped when the bridge collapsed.

No no, not literally. Some pothole-sized portions of the bridge have caved in. Thankfully nothing dramatic has happened so far, else TV9 and the other news channels would have been airing ultra slow motion shots of the bridge collapsing for the next 3-4 days as 'Breaking news', hyping it up more than 9/11 WTC collapse. The cops probably got the bridge evaluated by some agencies and decided not to allow vehicles on it anymore. There are some repair tasks being carried out briskly now. I hope they complete it soon.

[Soumyajit9]

Originally Posted by KarthikK

No no, not literally. Some pothole-sized portions of the bridge have caved in. Thankfully nothing dramatic has happened so far, else TV9 and the other news channels would have been airing ultra slow motion shots of the bridge collapsing for the next 3-4 days as 'Breaking news', hyping it up more than 9/11 WTC collapse. The cops probably got the bridge evaluated by some agencies and decided not to allow vehicles on it anymore. There are some repair tasks being carried out briskly now. I hope they complete it soon.

Aha. I see. I imagined it like one of those bridges struck by natural calamity
I had immediately started browsing through most of the Online News, checking for Breaking or Crashing News and didn't find any

But nevertheless, these potholes or portions of earth which have caved in, can turn into a major collapse, if not checked and repaired soon. Good that the BTP have done some of their homework, averting a major disaster, something different from their repute of arriving late at a scene of accident !!

I am looking at jams on this route for atleast a week, until its repaired / patched up, ain't it ?

[Vid6639]

Originally Posted by Soumyajit9

I am looking at jams on this route for atleast a week, until its repaired / patched up, ain't it ?

Yes don't even dream of this route for the next few months.

I tried using this route to go to Hoskote and it took me more than 2 hours. Huge Jam 1km before the left turn at Carmelaram, then slow moving on the Gunjur stretch. After joining Varthur, again pile up near the bridge.

I'm going back to Kundanhalli mess which is not as bad as Sarjapur now.

[KarthikK]

I guess the only option for BTM - whitefield commuters now is to take one of the city roads / ORR and go very early, totally avoiding peak hour traffic. Adjusting commute timings is the only way out now, I'm afraid. No other option left.

I have tried 7-8 variations over the past few days, some over ORR / graphite India, some over HAL-old airport road and of course this one over Carmelaram. All routes are devils of different sizes

[ampere]

Originally Posted by KarthikK

I guess the only option for BTM - whitefield commuters now is to take one of the city roads / ORR and go very early, totally avoiding peak hour traffic. Adjusting commute timings is the only way out now, I'm afraid. No other option left.

Like I said earlier. Its not an option. But make it a rule for oneself. No excuses, but get that timing to work. The dividends are huge.

[rohanjf]

KarthikK, at what time were you at Varthur today? I passed through Varthur, and there was no traffic at all! They have put big board near Gunjur, asking heavy vehicles not to take the route. In front of Varthur police station, they have put a board asking ALL vehicles to go on a different route. But since the cars in front of me continued straight, I also went straight. I managed to reach office in 10 minutes lesser time than usual!

I also noticed that the broken part of the bridge was fixed completely. The last bit of surface work was remaining? So, some other part of the bridge has collapsed now, or what?

That route is the shortest way for me to reach office. Tomorrow I will try to go through that route by 8.30 AM.

[sam_boy]

Originally Posted by KarthikK

I guess the only option for BTM - whitefield commuters now is to take one of the city roads / ORR and go very early, totally avoiding peak hour traffic. Adjusting commute timings is the only way

Today I broke all my personal timing records. Left home ( Kadugodi) at 8:15 Am and reached my office at dairy circle at 11 AM. A whopping 2 hours 45 minutes . After trying all sorts of permutation and combination I'm sticking to the regular road through Kundalahalli and ORR. I was stuck before St John's signal coming from Silkboard for more than an hour. This signal never bothered me much in the past like many other notorious signals. Anything special today on this road ?

[denver85]

Originally Posted by KarthikK

Those using Varthur road to commute to / from Whitefield, please avoid using the Varthur lake stretch or Varthur road itself entirely. I was stuck for close to 1.5 hours today morning due to the collapsed bridge in front of the lake road.

Thanks for the update at the right time Karthikk . I am not a regular traveler on this route. It is the best bypass for Bangalore on a Weekday. Was planning to take this route today evening to go to Carmeleram Railway station. Hope it's better stick to Kundanhalli and ORR mess from others experience also.

[KarthikK]

Originally Posted by rohanjf

KarthikK, at what time were you at Varthur today? I passed through Varthur, and there was no traffic at all! They have put big board near Gunjur, asking heavy vehicles not to take the route. In front of Varthur police station, they have put a board asking ALL vehicles to go on a different route. But since the cars in front of me continued straight, I also went straight. I managed to reach office in 10 minutes lesser time than usual!

I also noticed that the broken part of the bridge was fixed completely. The last bit of surface work was remaining? So, some other part of the bridge has collapsed now, or what?

That route is the shortest way for me to reach office. Tomorrow I will try to go through that route by 8.30 AM.

Whoa, that's surprising. Yeah, heavy vehicles were not being allowed towards Varthur near the Gunjur exit. I made my way here at around 10AM. Most cars however seemed to percolate and reach Varthur police station smoothly. From there the circus began. As usual, there were 2 lanes of cars trying to eat into the opposite lane and there was the bullying by cabbies squeezing back when something came in the opposite direction.

It took me close to one hour just to reach the damaged bridge. There, the smaller bridge was being alternately used to let both sides to pass for 1-2 minutes each. Are you sure the bridge work looked completed?? Maybe the workers had gone out for a chai/coffee break or maybe their workday had not started yet . I saw at least 10-15 workers on the job when I was passing by. The bridge was also completely barricaded and closed off. Couldn't see if something else had fallen off, but there were some workers in the water below the bridge's pillars. Not sure what they were doing there *lol*.

Originally Posted by sam_boy

Today I broke all my personal timing records. Left home ( Kadugodi) at 8:15 Am and reached my office at dairy circle at 11 AM. A whopping 2 hours 45 minutes . After trying all sorts of permutation and combination I'm sticking to the regular road through Kundalahalli and ORR. I was stuck before St John's signal coming from Silkboard for more than an hour. This signal never bothered me much in the past like many other notorious signals. Anything special today on this road ?

Even I was wondering what was wrong with traffic today. I expected traffic this week to be a bit lighter than usual, considering most corporate folks would have gone out on leave during these 2 long weekends.