NHSRCL’s Mumbai-Ahmedabad high-speed rail corridor picks up the pace with the casting of India’s heaviest PSC box girder at Navsari.

Navsari (Gujarat) [India], November 1 : Navsari, the historic town of the Parsis on Monday shot to fame with the casting of the heaviest Pre-Stressed Concrete (PSC) box girder in the construction industry in India kick-started for the much-awaited Mumbai-Ahmedabad highspeed rail corridor project by the National High-Speed Rail Corporation Limited (NHSRCL).

Minister of State for Railways and Textiles, Darshana Jardosh inspected the casting of the heaviest full span of the PSC box girder at Navsari. The PSC box girder of 40meters span weight of about 970 metric tones and that it is the heaviest box girder to be ever constructed in India.

To expedite the construction of the viaduct, construction of substructure and superstructure has been taken up in parallel.  While the work of substructure i.e. Pile, Pile Cap, Pier, and Pier Cap, is in progress, for the superstructure, casting yards have been developed along the alignment to cast Full Span Girders and Segmental Girders so that they can be launched using heavy machinery over the casted Pier Caps.

Most of the Girders for Superstructure will be of full span 30,35 &40 meter long, however, for locations where there is site constraint, Segmental launching of precast segments will be used. Full Span Girder is preferred over Segmental Girder as Full Span Girder launching progress is seven times faster than Segmental Girder launching.

For the casting of Girders 23 casting yards are being developed along the alignment. Each casting yard is spread over an area of 16 to 93 acres as per requirement and is located adjacent to the High-Speed Rail Alignment. For the expeditious casting of Girders with quality, facilities like jigs for making rebar cage, casting beds with hydraulically operated pre-fabricated moulds, batching plants, aggregate stacking area, cement silos, quality laboratory, and workmen camps have been developed in each casting yard.

The full span pre-cast box girders will be launched using heavy machineries like Straddle Carrier, Bridge Launching Gantry, Girder Transporter, and Launching Gantry. To ensure the continuous supply of girders for launching, the box girders will be cast in the casting yards in advance and stacked systematically.

Mumbai-Ahmedabad High-Speed Rail Project (MAHSR) is 508km long. Out of 508Km, 352Km lies in the state of Gujarat (348Km) and Dadar& Nagar Haveli (4Km) and the balance 156Km lies in the state of Maharashtra. Out of 352Km, M/s L&T is the executing agency for 325Km length, through two packages awarded to them i.e. C4 (237Km) and C6 (88Km).

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