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Grade Separator
Challenges Faced
in Planning, Design& Construction of
Grade SeparatorNear Apsara Border,
Delhi
Alok Bhowmick,
Managing Director, B&S
Engineering Consultants Pvt. Ltd.,
Noida
The paper describes the salient features of design
and construction of one of the most complex three
level grade separators ever constructed in the city of
Delhi. The Grade Separator comprises the following
major structural components:
A 6-lane flyover at Apsara Border along the GT
Road
2 Nos. 2 lane Underpasses along Road No. 56
and Road No. 62
2 Nos. RUBs constructed under extremelychallenging conditions by using box pushing
technique
2 Nos. of Foot Over Bridges across Road No. 56
and Road No. 62
Widening of existing bridge over Major Drain &
Allied Works
This is possibly the first project in India where
contiguous piles in combination with prestressed
horizontal anchors have been successfully used for
supporting the existing ROB approach close to the
proposed Underpass. This is also the grade separator
with longest total length of Underpass constructed inDelhi (total length 1666m). The paper highlights the
salient technical features of the project components
including the design and construction issues.
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Grade Separator
IntroductionRapid development and urbanization
of Delhi and surrounding areas
coupled with the high average
income of the populace (with large
standard deviation) has largely
eclipsed socio-cultural traits that
used to represent Delhi until a few
years after independence. Traffic
congestion, longer travel times and
high levels of air pollution are just
some of the growing problems
faced by the citys residents. Rising
incomes and a burgeoning middle
class has seen an increase in
private vehicles in the past two
decades, particularly because the
public transport system has notkept pace. Delhi has nearly 4.5
million vehicles, which is more than
that in the three other major Indian
cities of Mumbai, Calcutta and
Chennai put together. The growth
in the number of vehicles has had
a knock on effect on the roads of
the city. Traffic congestion, longer
travel times and high levels of air
pollution are just some of the
problems faced by the citys
residents. Coupled with the above,
there was tremendous pressure to
improve infrastructures in the urban
areas in general for the
Commonwealth Games of October
2010, which led to the construction
of this grade separator which was
long overdue at this intersection in
any case.
Need for the ProjectThe need for a grade separator at
the Seemapuri Border near Apsara
Talkies was felt for more than two
decades. Long queues at the
Intersection, frequent jams with
traffic stuck for hours were a
common sight at this intersection.
Public Works Department, Govt. of
Delhi had initiated this ambitious
project in the year 2006, with the
objective to increase road
connectivity between Delhi and U.P,
between Anand Vihar to Shahdaraand between Ghaziabad to
Maharana Pratap ISBT, Anand Vihar.
Feasibility study for the project was
carried out based on which, a six
lane flyover is envisaged along the
G T Road at this intersection
connecting Delhi & U.P and two
underpasses of 2 lane each are
envisaged along Road No. 56 (one
on either side of existing ROB) to
connect Anand Vihar with Dilshad
Garden.
Fig. 01 shows the key plan
showing alignment of Flyover,
Underpasses and location of Foot
Over Bridge. Part of the six lane
flyover falls in U.P side, for which
PWD got the working permission
from UP government. Cost of the
flyover however is borne by the Govt.
of Delhi.
Project Award dates
Approval for this project from
Technical Committee of DDA was
obtained in September 2006. DUAC
approval was obtained in July 2007.
The administrative approval for the
project was obtained on 9 th June
2008 for an amount of 226.47
crores.
The construction contract for
this project was awarded to M/S
AFCONS Infrastructure Limited,
Mumbai for an amount of `180.2crores. The construction period was
allocated as 21 months. The salient
dates for the project are as under :
Date of Commencement of Work
: 10th September 2008
Stipulated Date of Completion
: 9th June 2010
Flyover opened to traffic on
: 24th April 2010
1st Underpass opened to traffic
: 31st October 2010
2nd Underpass opened to traffic
: 5th January 2011
Photo P1 shows the completed
Grade Separator in Google Map.
Photo 1: Completed Grade Separator in GOOGLE map
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Grade Separator
Salient Features &
Components of the
Grade SeparatorFlyover along G T RoadThe 6 lanes flyover with divided
carriageways of 9m width (reduced
3 lanes) is constructed along the G
T Road. The total length of theflyover is 646m with length of the
stilted portion of 340m and balance
306m in solid fill with Reinforced
Earth Walls. The overall width of
the flyover including median is
20.2m.
The span arrangement for the
stilted part of flyover comprises 3
modules of continuous span units.
The central module comprise 4
spans of span lengths
40m+50m+50m+40m, totaling a
length of 180m, while the endmodules on either side of the
central module comprise 2 span
continuous structure of lengths
40m+40m each. Expansion joints
are provided at Abutments and at 2
intermediate sections, 80m away
from the abutments. Fig. 02 shows
the General Arrangement of the
Flyover.
The Superstructure comprises
a steel concrete composite plate
girder with in-situ RCC deck slab.
The girders are supported on
metallic bearings. The overall depth
of the superstructure deck is kept
at 1.925m. 4 plate girders are
provided transversely at a spacing
of 2.5m for supporting each of the
3 lane carriageway. The depth of
plate girders are kept as 1.7m. High
strength steel of grade Fe540B
conforming to IS:2062-2006 has
been used. The deck slab of
225mm thick is provided in M35
concrete on top of plate girders.
For the stilted portion, the two
carriageways are structurally
isolated and a longitudinal clear
gap of 200mm is provided at the
centerline of the median along the
entire length.
The bearing arrangement
comprises series of Metallic Free
POT cum PTFE bearings underouter girders, Guided Bearings
under internal girders at Free /
Expansion joint piers and Fixed
Bearings under internal girders of
fixed piers. The combination of
these types of bearings ensure
transfer of vertical loads and lateral
loads from Superstructure to the
foundation, through substructure.
Fig. 03 shows the bearing
arrangement for a typical
carriageway of this project.
RCC single circular pier of 2.0m
diameter have been provided under
each carriageway for all piers and
abutments, except fixed piers P4, in
which case pier diameter of 2.75m
has been provided. Pier cap is
cantilever type in all cases. Seismic
stoppers / arrestors are provided in
the transverse direction to arrest
the possible dislodgement of
Superstructure in the transverse
direction under earthquake loads.
Fig. 04 to Fig. 08 shows the typical
details of various components of
the Flyover.
The foundation sub-strata as
per the Geotechnical Report
comprise road fill or loose filled up
soil upto a depth of about 2.5m,
followed by silty fine sand / fine
sand layers upto 10-13m depthunderlain by very dense sandy
strata upto the explored depth. Total
of 10 number of bore holes have
been taken at the project site to
establish the geotechnical
properties for foundation design.
Bored cast-in-situ piles of
diameter 1.2m have been used for
supporting the stilted portion of
flyover. Total of 108 numbers of
piles have been provided for the
flyover. Pile capacity considered is
287 Tonnes for a length of 30m
below pile cap bottom. The safe
load capacity has been confirmed
by conducting initial pile load tests
as well as routine load tests on
working piles. Number of piles
provided under each foundation (for
each carriageway) is as under :
Abutments A1 & A2 : 4 nos.
Piers P1, P3, P5 & P7 : 6 nos.
Piers P2 & P6 : 5 nos.
Pier P4 : 12 nos.
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Photo P2 & P3 shows the
completed Flyover in service.
Underpasses along Road
No. 56 & Road No. 62Two Vehicular Underpasses
are provided alongside of
Road No. 56 and Road No.
62 connecting Dilshad Garden
and Anand Vih
