Amidst the COVID-19 pandemic, Indian Railways successfully completed the construction of the Valsad Road Over Bridge on Western Dedicated Freight Corridor (WDFC) in a record time. Dedicated Freight Corridor Corporation of India (DFCCIL), an Indian Railways’ PSU, completed the work of dismantling and reconstruction (after making way for DFC rail tracks) of Valsad ROB on the WDFC in Gujarat in just 20 days’ time. According to Railway Ministry, work on the Vaitarana-Sachin section of WDFC faced a hurdle of crossing a ROB near Valsad Town located in South Gujarat. Work on the ROB could not be started because of various limitations and also activities of track laying would have been adversely affected. The ministry also mentioned that track laying projects using New Track Construction (NTC) machine, would have been affected.

However, the project team geared up to take up this challenge of completing the ROB. The solution proposed after many brainstorming sessions was to insert a twin precast box of size 16 metres x 10 metres on the ROB’s approach to take the NTC forward through it. According to the ministry, in doing this work, the biggest challenge was road traffic block, as this ROB is known to be one of the busiest passages into Valsad from the Mumbai-Delhi highway. For pre-casting of these huge segments, extensive arrangements were made. Despite Covid lockdown and travel restrictions, a team of around 150 members, including senior engineers toiled day and night in order to finish the casting works. The ministry further said road traffic block was granted by Valsad’s district administration, responding favorably to the proposal.

On 2 July 2021, the 20-day road traffic block was commenced and the development work is progressing as per planning. For the installation of these segments, four heavy-duty hydraulic cranes having capacities varying from 300 MT to 500 MT are mobilized. Another challenge was solved by innovation in local handling of the segments, the ministry said. It further said that the precast segments are too big and heavy to handle without causing any internal stresses. A special carrier was designed by the project team using a multi-axle trailer fitted with a steel platform on it. Even during the time when the supply of industrial oxygen was prohibited in India, the fabrication of the steel platform was done at the site. The work could be completed by the team overcoming all such constraints by continuously striving for alternatives as well as by taping its collective wisdom experience, the ministry added.