Mumbai: Crack scare halts traffic on bridge

Mumbai: Vehicular traffic had to be stopped on both, the north and southbound sides of the Lalbaug flyover for some time after an anonymous caller complained of cracks on the structure.

After the urgent inspection at around 7 am on Monday, the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) bridge department said that the information was not true.

However, the traffic police has stopped entry of heavy vehicles onto the flyover as a part of the precautionary measure.

V. Tambe, senior police inspector of the Byculla Traffic Police Chowkie, said, “We tried to trace the caller after his complaint turned out to be false, but we could not trace him. A rumour has been doing rounds for a while that the flyover has developed cracks. We called the BMC to check the flyover, and the engineers confirmed there where no cracks.”

Meanwhile, chief engineer of the the BMC’s bridges department, S.O. Kori said, “It was a minor issue. A rubber seal of an expansion joint, which basically joins two slabs of the bridge, had become loose. This seal is insignificant as it prevents leakage of water onto the road during rainfall and helps mitigate the sound when vehicles cross the bridge in high speed.”

He added that the gap between the two slabs on the Byculla side of the Lalbaug flyover had widened and the commuter must have mistaken it for a crack, and reported it.

The Lalbaug flyover has been shut for traffic on two occasions previously after it developed cracks. This is the second time in the last four months that the flyover was shut for traffic. In November, the flyover was shut for about two days after a rubber seal between the expansion joints had slipped and BMC had to undertake repair work.