CHENNAI: The Chennai Metro Rail Limited (CMRL) has completed the casting of all 824 U-girders required for the 13.1 km elevated section of Corridor 5 under its Phase II project, a major construction milestone for the line connecting Madhavaram Milk Colony and Sholinganallur.
The final girder, measuring 19.5 metres and meant for the Adambakkam Metro station, was cast at the C5 ECV-02 casting yard, CMRL said on Friday. This is expected to support accelerated launch of superstructure works along the corridor.
The 43-acre casting yard, one of the largest precast facilities established for the Phase II project, has been producing structural components for the elevated viaduct and stations along the corridor. The project involves production of 5,836 precast elements using about 1.2 lakh cubic metres of concrete, weighing nearly three lakh metric tonnes. These include 302 pier caps, 1,465 pier arms, 824 U-girders, 2,055 post-tensioned and pre-tensioned I-girders, 194 T-girders, 68 portal U-shells and 1,079 parapets.
The project also saw the introduction of automated hydraulic mould operations for station U-girder production, described as a first-of-its-kind application in India for U-girder precasting. The corridor has involved casting of U-girders ranging from 8.9 metres to 33.3 metres long, with the longest weighing about 225 metric tonnes.