Hubballi Division completed the rebuilding of the waterway bridge in Hebsur recently. Bridge No. 9 of span 6.1m in Hubballi – Gadag Railway line at Hebsur which was old and in Run – down condition was replaced with a new bridge of the newest loading standard.
- Bridge No. 9 which was built during British Era on Hubballi – Gadag railway line was observed to be showing signs of deterioration during regular inspection of Railway officials.
- Hence, it was immediately supported with C-C cribs and strengthened.
- Further, a new bridge was designed and planned to be replaced as a permanent measure.
- The RCC boxes were casted at location and were planned to push below the running track.
- But the site posed a very typical challenge as the soil in the area has a thick layer of Black cotton soil which has very poor bearing capacity.
- Another field level problem was that the site at which the work was to be done was the lowest point of the area due to which it was perpetually water logged.
- This made taking men, material and machinery to the site extremely difficult.
- The site was drained out by making trenches and pits.
- Moreover, the approach to the site was made by using released railway concrete sleepers during the month of October and November 2020.
- The work was taken up under the guidance of Shri Vipul Kumar, Principal Chief Engineer and Shri Arvind Malkhede, Divisional Railway Manager in the month of December 2020.
- RCC boxes were pushed below the running railway line and the work was completed. Shri Arvind Malkhede said that the Hubballi Division team led by Shri Vinayak Padalkar, Divisional Engineer took up the work on war footing and in a mission mode to complete the work at the earliest.
- Shri Ajay Kumar Singh, GM/SWR appreciated the officers and staff for successfully completing the work even under difficult conditions and said that Railway is working relentlessly towards enhancing passenger safety by strengthening tracks and bridges.
Recent Achievement:
Hubballi Division of SWR is earnestly taking up works for removing speed restrictions that limit speed of trains. Track renewal works which enable faster movement of trains have been given tremendous thrust in the last 6 months. At locations notified trains will slow down because of permanent speed Restrictions in force because of various reasons.
- Now under “Mission Mobility” several works to attend to the root cause for Speed restriction are being done that facilitate removal of speed restrictions.
- The works done include increase in super-elevation at curves, correction of transition length, through tamping, attending points and crossings with track machines (named UNIMAT) are being carried out.
- Recouping of Ballast to maintain cushion and thereby riding quality, recouping missing permanent way fittings are also being done to facilitate faster trains.
- Because of the above special works done, speed restrictions have been removed at 4 locations covering 20.3 Km between Londa and Tinaighat.
- Section between Londa & Tinai ghat station Up line from Km 9/800 to 1/300 where speed has been raised from 45 Kmph to 65 Kmph, and in Dn line from Km 1/300 to 9/800 where speed has been raised from 45 Kmph to 65 Kmph.
- In Single Line section between Tinaghat and Castlerock speed has been raised from 45 Kmph to 65 Kmph at 2 locations at Km 14/200 to 16/500 and at Km 21/300 to 22/300.
- These speed restrictions were existing since last 25 years, from gauge conversion to Broad gauge in 1995-96.
To remove the speed restrictions on these 4 locations following track works were taken up:
- Slewing of 04 curves duly increasing the transitions length on UP line. Increasing the clean ballast cushion from 150-200 mm to 350-400 mm by lifting the track through BCM machine.
- Ballasting of track by Unloading 5000 cum of Ballast through Londa BT.
- Machine tamping and raising of super elevation in 03-04 stages for 15 curves.
- 10000-15000 cum of cess work on UP & DN line.
Removal of speed restrictions will contribute to higher goods train speeds, increases section capacity and reduce congestion.
Source: South Western Railway-Press Release
