The Hindu 29.07.2013
Corporation races against time to repair damaged sewer pipe
On Sunday morning, Corporation engineers were busy
working on Mill Road, near the flyover. They had barricaded the road,
right from the Mill Road — N.H. Road Junction to the roundabout on the
flyover to prevent the entry of vehicles. Within the barricaded zone,
were heavy machinery, concrete pipes, workers and officials.
The
Corporation engineers said that they were removing sewer lines that got
damaged a couple of days ago. The 600mm concrete pipes, laid 40 years
ago, caved in due to usage. The earth above it sank, created a dent on
the road, and the sewage started overflowing onto the road through
manholes as the earth choked the flow.
The engineers
said that they first diverted the sewage from Lawley Road,
Sundakamuthur, Thadagam Road, Gandhi Park, Sukhrawarpet, Mill Road and
Thiagaraya Pudhu Veethi at four points — Thadagam Road, Gandhi Park,
Mill Road — N.H. Road Junction and Thiagaraya Pudhu Veethi so that the
waste water reached Muthannankulam, the open drain along the Good Shed
Road, Valangulam and the sewage treatment plant in Ukkadam.
They
did so to ensure flow of sewage and also to prevent it from entering
the work spot on Mill Road. They then used a 120 tonne earth mover to
dig the road but it was of no use as machine could not do the job.
They
then used a 200 tonne earth mover. They used the machine to first drill
holes across the road to remove asphalt to access the damaged pipeline.
After removing the pipeline and the earth around it, they began placing
fresh concrete pipelines, one after another to cover the entire 84m
stretch of the damaged Trunk Main.
The engineers said
that by Sunday afternoon they had completed 50 per cent of the task in
that they had placed the concrete pipes, cemented the joints using
special cement and filled earth atop the pipes. But they had to abandon
the work around 5pm to enable drinking water supply to Town Hall and
areas around it, for the pipeline carrying the water sat next to the
damaged sewer line. If they were to remove earth, the drinking water
pipeline too would have caved in, without being able to withstand the
pressure of the running water.
The water supply went
on for about three hours and they commenced the work around 8pm, the
engineers said and added that they hoped to work over night to restore
the traffic by Monday morning.
City Engineer K.
Sugumar, Central Zone Chairman K. Aadhinarayanan and Ward 81 Councillor
M.A. Kuthbutheen were at the spot supervising the work.