A Metro twin for Nizamuddin bridge

NEW DELHI: Just 83m downstream of the Nizamuddin road bridge, another bridge has come up on the Yamuna — mirroring the location of its pillars exactly. For Delhi Metro, constructing the bridge to link Hazrat Nizamuddin with Mayur Vihar-I has been an exercise in replicating the existing road bridge. The idea was to align the pillars of the two bridges so as to not disturb the flow of water in the Yamuna.The new bridge across the Yamuna will connect two Metro stations across a distance of 3.9km--the farthest in Delhi outside of the Airport Metro line. The bridge itself is 602m long, but before that there is a 740m tunnel from Hazrat Nizamuddin to the Yamuna ramp that's 140m long. “The length of the viaduct connecting (the bridge) to the Mayur Vihar-I station is 2.46km,“ said Anuj Dayal, spokesman for Delhi Metro Rail Cor poration (DMRC).
The tunnel from Hazrat Nizamuddin will be 17m below the ground or road level, and will be located inside the park on the Sarai Kale Khan side. It will go 12m below the Ring Road crossing.
On the other side of the Yamuna, the height of pillars on the 2.46km viaduct varies from 7m to 18m. “The pier height at the Mayur Vihar crossing will be 18m from the ground or road level,“ added Dayal.
To build the bridge, entire segments were placed using launchers. Explaining this `segmental launching' technique, Dayal said, “These segments are installed en bloc along the length of a span, then pre-stress is introduced into the structure via external tendons, which results in faster construction“.
The bridge has 15 spans and 16 pillars. Seven of the spans measure 42.6m, six 42.1m and two 26m. Each pillar rises 10m above the water level.
All 16 piers were anchored in the riverbed using well foundation technology.
To build the bridge, 8,000 cubic metres of soil was dug out. This was utilized in the 360m-long guide bund on the Yamuna bank towards Sarai Kale Khan.
While the bridge is complete, DMRC officials said preliminary work on the tunnel is still on.
“It requires shifting of underground utilities. Civil work will start soon,“ said Dayal. While the elevated ramp is almost ready, 15% civil work has been done on the underground ramp. The 2.46km viaduct is also almost complete, said officials.
The bridge is part of the Lajpat Nagar-Trilokpuri stretch on the 59km Mukundur-Shiv Vihar corridor of Metro's Phase-III.