Traffic on National Highway hit as old bridge across Palar closed for repair

The traffic in the Chennai-Trichy National Highway was hit following the repair work undertaken on one of the two Palar bridges in Mamandur.

Sources said the Palar bridges at Mamandur in Chengalpattu was constructed in 1955 and 1984. As the bridge constructed in 1955 was unable to handle the traffic, another bridge was constructed in the year 1984. Now since the first bridge was damaged the department decided to repair and strengthen it, and it is completely closed for traffic from Monday and bridge constructed in 1984 had been handling the traffic.

Because of heavy flow since Monday morning certain heavy vehicles were stopped before the bridge and they were diverted to another road. Sources said the heavy vehicles which come from Chennai are being diverted to a nearby parallel road and the vehicles which arrive from Trichy would be diverted to Padalam, Nelvai village, Palayaseevaram and Pukuturai village. The highways department said that only heavy vehicles are being diverted from using the bridge and all light vehicles are allowed to use the bridge now at a slow speed. Strengthing of one bridge is expected to be over by 20 days and after that work on second bridge will comence, sources said.

However, the regular commuters said that since the highways department has asked them to drive very slowly on the bridge it takes a lot of time to cross the stretch. It would be helpful if the highways speed up the renovation process and complete the work soon, said the commuters.