Quepem bridge tested for its loading capacity

The Indian Road Congress (IRC) carried on load testing of Quepem bridge over Kushawati river has been carried out on Sunday to verify the safe loading capacity of the bridge which is calculated as 16.5 tons which was done in utter dissatisfaction of the members of Quepem Taluka Mining Affected Peoples Front and in utter inconvenience to the Civilian of Quepem.

The Load and feasibility testing which was carried by Goa Engineer College Formagudi headed by Dr. C. S. Gokle and his team commenced at around 8.00AM and concluded at around 1.30PM on 23 May 2010. The instruments which were used for the testing included High Precision Level, Total station and laser displacement meter.

The load and feasibility testing which was carried out at the instance of the members QTMAPF objected for the trucks to be used for the testing as the trucks were hired from one mining company who had a direct interest in not having proper testing of the bridge. The front member brought this fact to the notice of the Executive Engineer P.T.Parker and demanded weighing of the truck before using the same to weigh at an independent weigh bridge which demand was rejected by executive engineer as it will likely to delay the process of testing and requested the member to take the truck for testing after the testing was over. However when the four trucks used for testing the bridge were taken for weighing at Cacora it was found that the total weigh of the truck used was less by over 5.16 tons.

As per the weight of the four loaded truck which were hired from one Magnum Minerals Pvt ltd and used for load testing of the bridge were shown as 76920 kg. of which deflection of the bridge was shown as 7 to 8 mm although the actual weight of all the four trucks used for testing was 71760 kg as weighted at GIDC Cacora. The members of the front claims that if the weight of the tuck was exact than the deflection would have been much higher.

As the bridge was closed on account of its testing the Civilian of Quepem were put to hardship as it was a Sunday Bazar in Quepem town. Villagers had to walk long distance to reach to the bazaar. Some people were even seen crossing the river on the foot bridge erected as the bring was closed even for pedestrian.

Dr. C. S. Gokle, head of civil department of Farmagudi Engineer college in presence of Executive enigneer PWD P.T.Parker, Assitant Engineer Rosario Pereira and other officials of PWD informed reporter that his department will submit the load and feasibility testing report of the bridge to the PWD on Monday (24th May 2010).