Work on Korang Bridge progressing on schedule

Islamabad: Work on the Korang bridge widening is continuing according to the schedule and it is expected that the outbound side of the Islamabad Expressway will be completed up to the already constructed PWD Under-pass and will be ready and opened for traffic by the end of April.

Syed Munawar Shah, a Member (Engineering) of the Capital Development Authority (CDA) said that all-out efforts are being made to complete the Korang Bridge before the advent of Ramzan-ul-Mubarak.

“However, as the task is a gigantic one, we have set a realistic target of the end of April for completing this part and throwing it open for traffic on this 1.9km stretch up to the PWD underpass,” Member (Engineering) added.

“I am very optimistic because of the kind of efforts being made by the FWO and deployment of men and machinery and we hope people living on both sides beyond Korang bridge up to the PWD under-pass will feel very comfortable.

“Meanwhile, work on the next segment of the project, from Soan Bridge to T-Chowk, the work also is going on at a much faster pace and we hope that would also be completed ahead of schedule,” Syed Munawar Shah said.

The Project Director of the CDA, while talking to ‘The News’ said that so far 22 girders on two spans have been laid and the concrete slab of the northern span has been completed while the steel framework on the southern span is undergoing. It is expected that the pouring of the concrete slab of the southern span will be done soon. He said that it takes 18 days for the concrete slab to gain full strength.

Meanwhile, the laying of the remaining 11 girders on the central span is scheduled to start on 25th February and the whole process will be completed by 31st March.

The girder-laying work on the Railway Bridge southward is also going on and three girders have already been laid.

The CDA’s Project Director said that as the bridge is on the main railway line, the CDA has to coordinate with Pakistan Railways to find clear slots during which girders could be laid without any interruption because of train movements.

He said that once the bridge would be complete by the end of April and opened for traffic, all traffic would be shifted to the newly constructed rigid lanes which are almost 10.5 meter wide including the shoulder and work will start on the existing two-lane road to bring it up and merge with the new two-lane rigid part.

He said that the existing two-lane southbound east-side bridge will be part of the under-construction new bridge, which will become an 8-lane. So, with a small curve, the northbound west-side road will be connected with this bridge while the old west-side bridge will be kept intact and used as a ‘Service Road’ bridge in the future. The west-side northbound road heading towards Islamabad from T-Chowk will take a few more months to complete and if all goes well, that part of the project is scheduled to be completed by end of June 2023.

The most time-consuming part of this segment of the project would be demolishing the existing railway bridge to construct a new one. For this purpose, all up and down traffic will be switched to the east-side southbound bridge, which would become 4-lane once the remaining girders are laid. About the northbound west side road, the Project Director said that almost 90 per cent of work on the two-lane rigid portion has been completed and the rest will be completed by 30th June 2023.