Eastern Freeway will be the first elevated road in the city where expansion joints between girders have been smoothed out to make sure motorists do not encounter bumps every few metres
All flyovers in the city have tiny bumps every few metres because engineers who construct these elevated roads put expansion joints in place to connect two girders — leading to the problem. The Eastern Freeway that connects orange gate near P D’Mello Road to Ghatkopar via Chembur, will, however, have no such rickety joints.
Expansion joints are the exact point where two girders of a flyover meet. A few millimetres of space is kept between girders to allow for expansion and contraction as per the changes in temperature. “While constructing the elevated portion of the freeway a lot of attention was given to the expansion joints. We have made sure motorists have a smooth ride while driving on the flyover,” said a senior MMRDA official on condition of anonymity.
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“While giving finishing touches to the bitumen layer on the flyover, we made sure we were successful in obtaining a high level of accuracy. It is because of this that motorists using the flyover won’t witness bumpy rides,” said a beaming Jaywant Dhane, an executive engineer with MMRDA.
So why has the same attention to detail not been given to any of the other flyovers? “The past cannot be changed. But from now on we will make sure that all new flyovers that we construct will be on the lines of the Freeway, so that motorists no longer have a bumpy ride,” the official said.
This signal-free corridor, once completed, is expected to improve connectivity between the island city and the eastern suburbs tremendously. The 9.29-km-long first part of the Eastern Freeway and the 4.3-km long Anik-Panjarpol Link Road will be thrown open to citizens this May. u00a0
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