Where indigenous experts are at work

Flyover at Orugodawatte nearing completion:

By Indeewara THILAKARATHNE

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Chinese workers are busy along with their Sri Lankan colleagues at the construction site of the to flyover at Orugodawatte junction which is one of the main gateways to the city of Colombo. The construction of the fly over has been continuing for over a period of nearly three years.

The construction was, some what, delayed primarily due to diversion of water, electricity and telecommunication underneath the road where the foundation for the fly over was to lay.

Lands that came under construction had not been cleared out. Still two lands including a temple has yet to be vacated.

According to the Consultant Engineer D.S. Dantanarayana, since the commencement of construction, a considerable time had to be devoted to diversion of underground network of main pipe lines which supply water from Ambatale to the city of Colombo. Since the non-availability of a map on laid out pipe lines, it had been a meticulous task to trace the pipe lines.

“Although we are going ahead with constructions, before opening the flyover in January, we have to get these two lands cleared. Two water mains are running through this road from Ambatale to Colombo. The supply of water to the city of Colombo can not be disturbed. Generally water supply was disrupted once a month so it took a longer time for the diversion. There are 33,000 KW, 11,000KW and 400KW high tension electricity lines. As the same land to be used for the diversion, these electricity lines had to be shifted before water mains were diverted. Same procedure had to be adapted with regard to diversion of telecommunication cables.

In order to facilitate piling on either side of the railway line, railway lines have to be diverted to the next service line.

Railway lines were diverted ten days ago. “said Consultant Engineer D.S Dantanarayana describing the obstacles that eventually delayed the commencement of the constructions.

Although the project was planned to finish by September, 2008, construction can be completed by January 2009. “If we could complete the fly over by January 2009, it will be a real achievement “said Dantanarayana, citing constrains under which Chinese constructor China Auto CAIEC Ltd has to carry out the constructions.

The Flyover is designed to last for 120 years according to Sri Lankan regulations. Special mixture of concrete has been used for the constructions in order to withstand heavy loads.

“We are grade 60 concretes which is a very high concrete, for the constructions. Actually, in the concrete mixture, we had silica fumes from the coal ash to enhance the strength of the concrete and to improve certain properties.

Usually we need, at least, fifteen nuton millimetre squire strength in about four to five days times because we are stressing the beams up to the maximum load to complete the project. Normally this process would take fourteen days. But we are expediting the process with a special concrete mix.

Here we use pre-stressing techniques to pre-stress box-beams and each box girdle is hundred and twenty tones weighed and each beam is stressed with a force of about thousand seven hundred tones.

The flyover consisted of four beams. Total width of the beam will be about 4.3 meters. “said Engineer Dantanarayana of the techniques used for the constructions.

The technique of pre-stressing was introduced by Sri Lankan engineer Dr. Kulasinghe and Chandrasena fifty years ago. Subsequently the technique was adapted by countries like China, Japan and Australia.

However, the technique is not widely used in Sri Lanka. For the construction of the fly over, Chinese machinery and technology have been used as it has substantially cut down the expenses. Chinese contractor China Auto CAIEC Ltd is operating under the technical guidance of Sri Lankan Engineers.

Among other things, the project has, once again, proved beyond doubt that Sri Lankan Engineers are as capable as their American or Japanese counter parts in living up to targets and confronting with challenges.

“Our company is a State -owned company and commenced this project in 2005.

But we encountered several problems such as clearing up lands for the constructions. Constructions delayed as a result of service diversion and if everything was cleared for constructions, we can complete the fly over in one year’s time.

According to our new construction plan, we suppose to complete the flyover by the end of January 2009. We are also working on Kirulapona Bridge and on Trincomalee Bridge.

Even in China, we do not use big beams as the beams used for this project, “said Qi Cheng Fa of China Auto CAIEC Ltd.

Although the flyovers are quite new to physical surrounding in Sri Lanka, they have been a regular feature in developed countries. The aim of the flyovers is ensure an efficient network of roads easing the traffic, thereby saving much -needed time and energy.

Government has decided to construct seven flyover within this year to ease the traffic congestion in the city of Colombo.

Accordingly, Fly Overs will be constructed in Nugegoda (261m), Kohuwala (219 m), Dehiwala (335m), Junction of Rajagiriya and Welikada, (555m), Panadura (288m) Kelaniya South (300m) and Kelaniya (North) will be constructed at a cost of Sterling Pounds 33 million. The project is funded by the UK Government.

The construction of fly over at Nugegoda is also about to complete and it will also ease the traffic in High Level road.It is a home truth that nation can not march for a rapid development without basic infrastructures such as efficient system of transport, cheap electricity and excellent telecommunication facilities.