The Hindu 19.10.2010
Corporation breaks up concrete road
Staff Correspondent
| Plans afoot to lay alternative water pipepline |
Corporation engineer says the road is 20-cm thick
Many concrete roads have been built over pipelines
Concrete road, a few feet away from Bendoor Junction, being broken.
MANGALORE: Workers of Mangalore City Corporation dug up a portion of newly laid concrete road at Bendoorwell on Monday after water was found leaking.
A junior engineer of the corporation who did not want him to be quoted told The Hindu that there was a 600-mm diameter asbestos cement pipeline which supplies drinking water to Mangaladevi temple area, Old Kent Road, Hoige Bazar and Mulihitlu areas.
It was not sure on Monday whether the leak was in joint or pipeline has burst. It will be known only after digging was completed.
The engineer said that the road bed is 15-cm thick. The concrete is 20-cm to 25-cm thick. Hence it is not easy to cut the concrete. He said that a few days ago a 200-mm diameter High Density Polyethylene water supply pipeline under the concrete road near Bejai museum had burst. Then the workers were able to repair it by drilling a tunnel on which a worker was able to go inside. There was no need to cut the concrete road.
The engineer said that it was not possible to dig up a tunnel at Bendoorwell as there were roadside buildings. In addition, the area has laterite soil.
As there was loose soil in Bejai workers were able to drill the tunnel.
He said it was not sure if workers would be able to repair it on Tuesday.
The engineer said the entire stretch of the concrete road from Bendoorwell to Marnamikatta Circle has 600-mm diameter pipeline underneath. There is a danger of the pipeline getting damaged.
Praveenchandra Shetty, an automobile surveyor who runs an office at Bendoorwell, said that it exposed lack of planning by the corporation while laying concrete roads in the city.
The corporation has laid many concrete roads in the city without shifting water supply lines or laying alternative pipelines.
The engineer said the corporation had a proposal to lay a new water supply pipeline from Bendoorwell to Marnamikatta Circle on a side of the concrete road. He agreed that the corporation could have laid the concrete road after laying an alternative pipeline.
