NF Railway ’s team rectify tilted bearings of Saraighat Bridge

Dimapur, Jan. 17 (EMN): Engineers of NF Railway created a record of sorts when they carried out rectification of the bearing arrangements of the iconic Saraighat Bridge during a three-hour traffic block on Jan. 12. This was stated in a press release from the chief public relations officer of the NFR of Maligaon on Wed. Jan. 17. Bearing are said to be the arrangement by which the bridge rests on the piers (pillars). ‘They not only link the bridge girders to the pillars but also facilitate the lateral movement of the bridge as a result of expansion etc,’ stated the release. It was probably during the 6.1 Richter scale earthquake of Sept. 21, 2009 that the bearings under two end girders got tilted. While this was not considered unsafe, the bearings in fact needed proper rectifications. The bridge was kept under observation and speed of trains was kept at 45 kmph. Rectification of the bearings was indeed a herculean task as the ends of the bridge girders were to be lifted by about 10 centimetres. Such work was never taken up earlier. The team of Railway Engineers of Northeast Frontier Railway accepted this challenge. After thorough research and design, the Engineers decided that the tilted bearings of this bridge would be rectified. Accordingly, necessary preparations were made to deal with all kinds of possible adverse situations that could occur so as to avoid disruption to this vital connectivity. Requisite bearing members were arranged and heavy duty lifting jacks of 500 tonne capacity apart from other machinery were mobilized. To rectify the bearings without any hazard, the rail and road traffic on the bridge was suspended temporarily for three hours. It is to be mentioned that as a matter of abundant precaution, in addition to the active hydraulic jacks, two additional hydraulic jacks of 500 Tonne capacity and two mechanical jacks of 100 Tonne capacity were kept ready as back up arrangement. To prepare for the worst scenario of an earthquake occurring during the work execution i.e. when the bridge would be in lifted condition, the girders were tied with cables with fixed structures.