At around 1.30am on Tuesday, shortly after the last local train passed through Prabhadevi station, a flurry of activity began under Elphinstone Bridge. MahaRail and Western Railway workers raced against the clock for a block of two hours and forty-five minutes to dismantle and remove the massive second girder of the old bridge.
The task involved cutting and lifting a 26-tonne steel beam that extended 32 meters above the slow tracks on the south side of the Western Railway. While much of the preparatory cutting had been completed earlier, the final sections were removed during the night block.
“Now that we have the experience of removing the northern end girder, done this Saturday night, we know the steps step by step,” said an engineer from the Maharashtra Rail Infrastructure Development Corporation present at the site.
The activity began under Elphinstone Bridge. (Express Photo by Akash Patil)
Work around overhead power lines
Teams from MahaRail and its contractor Space Chem Engineers Pvt Ltd focused on cutting the ends of the girders, while Western Railway staff simultaneously worked on the overhead power cables below. Officials said limited space between the bridge and aerial equipment added to the challenge.
“What makes the task of dismantling the bridge more difficult and time-consuming is that the distance between the bridge and the upper overhead cable, also called catenary cable that holds the lower contact cable in place, is not enough. Therefore, the upper cable was interconnected and coiled with the bridge,” the engineer said. “As a solution, just when we are working on dismantling the bridge, WR is fixing the OHE.”
At 2:30 a.m., most of the beam was cut and supported by a crane placed 15 meters above the tracks. Weight transfer gradually increased as instructions were transmitted via walkie talkies.
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Around 2:50 a.m., a final push dislodged the beam, leaving it suspended in the air. Applause and cheers followed as workers guided the metal span using ropes, rotating it ninety degrees to align it with the tracks. Within minutes, the beam was removed from the railway zone and placed outside the premises.
Approximately ninety minutes after the blockade began, the beam was completely removed. Western Railway crews then restored the overhead equipment, allowing the block to finish at 4.05am and train services to resume at 4.30am.
The removal marks the completion of the dismantling of the bridge over the slow tracks of the Western Railway, although significant parts of the structure remain.
Avoid long train stops
The 112-year-old Elphinstone Bridge was closed in September to make way for the Sewri-Worli connector, raising concerns about prolonged disruptions to the railway. By breaking down the demolition work into smaller overnight blocks, MRIDC hopes to avoid a twelve-hour total railroad shutdown and complete the project by the end of February.
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“The demolition of the bridge is going faster on the WR tracks, for which until now we had 16 blocks,” said the MRIDC engineer. “With the exception of one eight-hour block in early January that did not go as planned as there was not enough room for the crane to position itself due to compression from nearby neighbors, two have been 4 hours and the rest shorter.”
Next phase of demolition
Next week, work on the Western Railway side will focus on cutting the removed beam into smaller sections, demolishing the abutment and clearing the shed at the west end to allow cranes to move forward. Seven sections of steel flooring and two additional beams will then be dismantled, requiring another 22 short railway blocks.
On the Central Railway side, 12 blocks have already been used and nine more have been requested.
“Due to the complications with the OHE cables, our hope is to demonstrate to CR that it is possible to remove the girders bit by bit and have the railroads do the OHE work simultaneously, as we managed to do at the WR. If they come on board, we may be able to forego the need for the final 12-hour block and complete it in short periods,” the engineer said.
Night blocks are preferred to long blocks
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Twelve-hour rail blockade would require Railway Board approval Delhi and could take at least two weeks, significantly affecting commuter and long-distance train services.
officials of the Bombay The Metropolitan Region Development Authority said most of the work is carried out during the regular night corridor blocks and weekend megablocks.
“The MMRDA had demanded three 15-hour rail blockades, but they were rejected due to the huge impact and loss,” an official said. “That’s why we now work in the night blocks, with pre-cut pieces, prepared and raised when the city sleeps.”