Carnac Bridge Demolition: 75 days of planning for 27-hour exercise of dismantling Mumbai's iconic structure

Railway officials have been working on the Carnac Bridge's demolition since September and have already put in a few hundred hours to minutely plan the upcoming 27 hours of work this weekend.

The last fortnight has been of intense activity to ensure things are going according to plan. “All our departments have been coordinating with each other to ensure nothing untoward occurs. Every minute of this 27-hour-long block has been planned, right from defining each personnel's role to the sequence of dismantling,” Central Railway (CR) chief public relations officer, Shivaji Sutar said.

Bridge found to be unsafe in 2015

In 2015, railway officials surveyed the bridge and found it unsafe, which kicked off the steps to work towards its demolition and reconstruction. Eventually, the nod from Mumbai Traffic Police came on August 19 this year and the more than a century old bridge was closed for everyone from September 1.

Since September, around 300 truckloads (1,440 tonnes) of asphalt, concrete, and other debris have been shaved and disposed of from the bridge's surface, measuring 50m in length and 8m in width. Here on, other than inter department coordination and with other government agencies, there are three contractors involved in the dismantling process.

They will be responsible for overhead equipment, lighting and dismantling. However, before the main dismantling work commences, the railway authorities will have to remove overhead electrical wires fromthe section where work will be carried out.

As per the plan,it will take only two hours to remove the electrical equipment at the beginning and another four hours at the end of the demolition work for restoration. In other words, six of the 27 hours will get utilised only towards handling overhead electrical equipment.

Iconic structure weighs 450 tonnes, will be divided into seven spans

The iconic structure that has to be removed weighs 450 tonnes, to be divided into seven spans. Authorities have planned to cut these seven spans into 44 pieces over a period of 27 hours.

“Using 50 gas-cutting machines, a cutter and a helper, the metal structure will be broken down into 44 pieces. Depending on its position and our plan, each piece – weighing between 3 and 18tonnes – will be lifted by one of the four cranes and passed on to another crane on the approach road,” informed an engineer involved in the demolition plan.