Chennai Bypass/IRR/ORR & Road Construction Update

[Rasnaboy]

Originally Posted by Madras_Fan

Keeran,

You had quoted the right example of 401 in Canada. I am just adding the picture below of 401 which I had took a month back to my Canada trip. I was indeed excited to see the number of lanes and the equal amount of traffic it had despite So many lanes like Fast, Slow, Exit lanes and Shoulders

Click the Photos for Bigger Pictures






Can anyone now think that 200 Ft is not required ???

Good shots Madras Fan!

Functionally (and only functionally) it's similar to our Chennai Bypass Road, right? Ours is only 4-laned. Even for the prestigious ORR, we haven't gone beyond 6 lanes.

Btw, why don't you upload these photos onto Wikipedia? The photos of Highway 401 currently in the Wikipedia article are not as good as yours.

[Rasnaboy]

Originally Posted by dis.agree

i still do. whenever i see such roads and everytime i travel to usa, i wonder if all the other countries should come together and impose trade restrictions on them.

anyway, all that is not required with market increasing the prices of energy. canada would still be able to continue such energy in-efficient life styles because they have a lot of useful energy but usa does not. this world is a far better place without usa. usa consumes way too much and has not been producing for a long while now. let's stop aping usa or for that matter any of those so-called developed countries that built all that infrastructure only because of availability of cheap oil. remember that this world was an entirely different place for thousands of years & growing slowly. it all changed only in the last 200 years. all this was made possible because of fossil fuels that were created millions of years ago and we would be exhausting them within the next century - less than 300 years since coal & later oil was discovered. although it is common knowledge that these conventional fossil fuels are non-renewable, we all hope that it is in-exhaustible. year after year, we have international agencies such as iea, eia or us-doe publish trash - it's all based on hope & extrapolation.

so when some one says, world bank highway officials said so, i will not take it at face value. it is all based on developed countries which are all wrong & un-sustainable.

Good points Disagree! I kind of agree with it. You think out of the box which even others tend to overlook sometimes. Thanks.

But the issue at stake is not fuel or stuff like that. It's all about the fundamental infrastructure. If we run out of fuel (which we surely will), we would find some alternative sources, say, solar energy, electric energy, hydrogen-powered automobiles, etc. In all cases, the supporting infrastructure will be our same old tarmac. Even if we get back to bullock carts or anything like that, a well-maintained road will be the fundamental requirement. Even if we are disinclined to go for 18 and 20 lanes, in my humble opinion, a modest 6/8 laned road is a must, that too for a busy highway. And Chennai surely deserves those wide roads given its traffic density.

Chennai's vehicle population : 3.2 million
Two-wheelers : 25,00,000
Cars : 4,26,000
Lorries, Vans, Tempos & Trucks : 1,50,000
Autos : 51,000
City Buses : 3,080
EMUs : 78
Passengers using MTC buses : 46,00,000
Passengers using Trains : 0.5 million
New vehicles added to Chennai Roads : 500/day

[dis.agree]

Originally Posted by Rasnaboy

Good points Disagree! I kind of agree with it. You think out of the box which even others tend to overlook sometimes. Thanks.

But the issue at stake is not fuel or stuff like that. It's all about the fundamental infrastructure. If we run out of fuel (which we surely will), we would find some alternative sources, say, solar energy, electric energy, hydrogen-powered automobiles, etc. In all cases, the supporting infrastructure will be our same old tarmac. Even if we get back to bullock carts or anything like that, a well-maintained road will be the fundamental requirement. Even if we are disinclined to go for 18 and 20 lanes, in my humble opinion, a modest 6/8 laned road is a must, that too for a busy highway. And Chennai surely deserves those wide roads given its traffic density.

all such renewables are a long way to go. it would be 2 decades before we have a reliable & meaningful contribution from such sources. it is not even clear if we will transition smoothly from fossils to renewables. there is hope that we will transition without a severe depression or a war using nuclear energy but there is a huge resistance. but then to build that next nuclear plant requires 10 years (usa would require even longer). even by indian govt standards (among the most enthusiastic in the world for wanting to build such plants), nuclear energy is expected to contribute only 20% of electricity in 2 decades from now. electricity is itself only a fraction of total energy we consume.

btw, electricity & hydrogen are not energy sources.

[Raj_network]

Originally Posted by dis.agree

i still do. whenever i see such roads and everytime i travel to usa, i wonder if all the other countries should come together and impose trade restrictions on them.

i dis agree this..

[Madras_Fan]

Originally Posted by Rasnaboy

Good shots Madras Fan!

Functionally (and only functionally) it's similar to our Chennai Bypass Road, right? Ours is only 4-laned. Even for the prestigious ORR, we haven't gone beyond 6 lanes.

Btw, why don't you upload these photos onto Wikipedia? The photos of Highway 401 currently in the Wikipedia article are not as good as yours.

Thanks for the accolades. This was one of the rare trips I was not on the driver's seat and hence I waited for more than 30 Minutes to get a view of the full length of the road. I could only take 2 snaps on small slope before the view never appeared again. The middle 3 lanes on each sides are fast lanes. The extreme 3 lanes on each sides are slow lanes(MPS is 100 KMPH for both fast and slow lanes). There are entries from Fast to Slow and From Slow to Fast every 3-4 Km. We had to move to the slow lanes before we exit from the road.

Dia-agree - I agree with the core concepts that US is exhausting much fossil fuel. But My picture was posted to substantiate Keeran's post on 401 Planning. You have to accept that this 401 HWY in Canada is well planned and My photo is a substantiation for that.. Thats it.

In chennai reserving 200 feet is essential for such key stretches. Assume its for more public and unlike in developed countries let this space be used for carrying more public transportation like BRTS.(ORR is planned with 400 Ft ofcourse with 50 ft each side for commercial exploitation)

Road - 3+ 3 Lanes (50 Feet Each Side) = 100 Feet
Service Lanes 15 feet each side = 30 Feet
BRTS/Future Rail Strips 25 feet on each side = 50 Feet
Medians = 10 feet approx
Greeneries/bus stops spaces = 10 Feet approx

If the Width reduce perhaps anyone in India will sacrifice for the BRTS strip and will content with 150 Ft. But on longer run its essential.

[ramvaradan]

Originally Posted by dis.agree

all such renewables are a long way to go. it would be 2 decades before we have a reliable & meaningful contribution from such sources. it is not even clear if we will transition smoothly from fossils to renewables. there is hope that we will transition without a severe depression or a war using nuclear energy but there is a huge resistance. but then to build that next nuclear plant requires 10 years (usa would require even longer). even by indian govt standards (among the most enthusiastic in the world for wanting to build such plants), nuclear energy is expected to contribute only 20% of electricity in 2 decades from now. electricity is itself only a fraction of total energy we consume.

btw, electricity & hydrogen are not energy sources.

the transition will indeed take a longtime .. but not for the lack of technology but for the reason of lethargy. it takes a brisk re-structuring at a war-footing pace to save ourselves from the impending energy crisis .. and its next to impossible to have our politicians envision any farther than 2 or 3 years down the road. govt. and folks are generally very myopic and can only think of immediate needs. but this 'fall' out of energy sources is going to wind down us more rapidly than we have ever imagined.

i believe if we mix-match the existing technologies such as wind, solar, geothermal with the other alternatives as CNG, hydrogen fuel cells -- we can leverage them to a great utility value. but it involves certain radical adjustments to our lifestyles ... more than that it requires an extreme direction and commitment to explore, experiment and innovate

no-one is going to reinvent a light bulb because of energy reasons. the rationale is cost of reinventing does not meet the ends. until the day, when the cost of lighting the bulb will exceed all the means.

i think nuclear reactors are overkill. its like torching a farm to kill a weed. i think we got to think small yet powerful... just outsource the power generation to common man and let them upload to the grid.

[R2IChennai]

Originally Posted by Rasnaboy

Good shots Madras Fan!

Functionally (and only functionally) it's similar to our Chennai Bypass Road, right? Ours is only 4-laned. Even for the prestigious ORR, we haven't gone beyond 6 lanes.

Btw, why don't you upload these photos onto Wikipedia? The photos of Highway 401 currently in the Wikipedia article are not as good as yours.

I was travelling on this one last month, man 20 lanes were not enough
I was stuck in traffic and missed the exit.

[natarajan1986]

Chennai: A three-km-long elevated corridor, a part of the Chennai bypass project, is taking shape, with National Highways Authority of India (NHAI) having completed about 70% of the work.
According to official sources in the Union road transport ministry, construction of all the 276 pillars on both sides have been completed and work on road portion of the elevated highway is in progress. However, the completion of a road-overbridge at Pattaravakkam, which is a part of the project, is likely to take some more time.
Chennai bypass is an expressway being implemented for a total distance of 32 km to interlink all the four national highways around the city. The first phase of the Rs 405-crore project, linking Grand Trunk Road (NH – 45) along Tambaram with Kolkata High Road (NH -5) along Madhavaram, was completed and inaugurated in April.
And the second phase work on connecting links to Madhuravoyal and Madhavaram via Ambattur, Pattaravakkam, Menambedu and Kathirvedu, are in progress. The elevated corridor which is being constructed from Ambattur Industrial Estate to Pattaravakkam is a major and expensive part of the second phase.
“The project, started in May 2005, is being funded by National Highways Authority of India. Most of the land acquisition for the project has been completed. Tambaram to Maduravoyal, a 19-km long stretch, which was earlier a two-lane road, has now been converted into a four-lane road. The second phase covers a 13-km distance. On its completion, the expressway, a toll road, would reduce traffic congestion on roads in the city limits,” said an official in the ministry.
On completion of the project, vehicles coming from Tiruchi (NH-45) and other southern districts can reach Bangalore Road (NH-4), MTH Road (NH 205) and Kolkata High Road (NH 5) without entering the city. However, officials said they couldn’t fix an exact time limit for completion of the project as some of the technical issues are to be sorted out.
ALL ABOUT A ROAD
Chennai bypass is an expressway planned to interlink all the four national highways around the city to decongest traffic within city limits
Project commenced in May 2005
On completion of the project, vehicles coming from Tiruchi (NH-45) and other southern districts can reach Bangalore Road (NH-4), MTH Road (NH 205) and Kolkata High Road (NH 5) without touching the city
Cost of the 32-km long Chennai Bypass Project is Rs 405 crore
Second phase of the highway from Madhuravoyal to Madhavaram is in progress
Three-km long elevated highway via Ambattur Industrial Estate is in progress at a cost of Rs 100 crore
Sources:TOI

[Into_salem]

Source : http://epaper.timesofindia.com/Defau...Mode=HTML&GZ=T

[Rasnaboy]

Originally Posted by natarajan1986

Chennai: A three-km-long elevated corridor, a part of the Chennai bypass project, is taking shape, with National Highways Authority of India (NHAI) having completed about 70% of the work.
According to official sources in the Union road transport ministry, construction of all the 276 pillars on both sides have been completed and work on road portion of the elevated highway is in progress. However, the completion of a road-overbridge at Pattaravakkam, which is a part of the project, is likely to take some more time.
Chennai bypass is an expressway being implemented for a total distance of 32 km to interlink all the four national highways around the city. The first phase of the Rs 405-crore project, linking Grand Trunk Road (NH – 45) along Tambaram with Kolkata High Road (NH -5) along Madhavaram, was completed and inaugurated in April.
And the second phase work on connecting links to Madhuravoyal and Madhavaram via Ambattur, Pattaravakkam, Menambedu and Kathirvedu, are in progress. The elevated corridor which is being constructed from Ambattur Industrial Estate to Pattaravakkam is a major and expensive part of the second phase.
“The project, started in May 2005, is being funded by National Highways Authority of India. Most of the land acquisition for the project has been completed. Tambaram to Maduravoyal, a 19-km long stretch, which was earlier a two-lane road, has now been converted into a four-lane road. The second phase covers a 13-km distance. On its completion, the expressway, a toll road, would reduce traffic congestion on roads in the city limits,” said an official in the ministry.
On completion of the project, vehicles coming from Tiruchi (NH-45) and other southern districts can reach Bangalore Road (NH-4), MTH Road (NH 205) and Kolkata High Road (NH 5) without entering the city. However, officials said they couldn’t fix an exact time limit for completion of the project as some of the technical issues are to be sorted out.
ALL ABOUT A ROAD
Chennai bypass is an expressway planned to interlink all the four national highways around the city to decongest traffic within city limits
Project commenced in May 2005
On completion of the project, vehicles coming from Tiruchi (NH-45) and other southern districts can reach Bangalore Road (NH-4), MTH Road (NH 205) and Kolkata High Road (NH 5) without touching the city
Cost of the 32-km long Chennai Bypass Project is Rs 405 crore
Second phase of the highway from Madhuravoyal to Madhavaram is in progress
Three-km long elevated highway via Ambattur Industrial Estate is in progress at a cost of Rs 100 crore
Sources:TOI

Great news Natarajan! Awaiting this for a long time. Thanks.

Thanks Into_salem, for the source.

Btw Natarajan, please include complete source just as Into_salem did in the above post so that one can just click on the link to open the source.

[Elango1984]

The Chennai Metropolitan Development Authority (CMDA) has pla-nned to develop a 62 km long outer ring road connecting Vandalur in the south and Minjur in the north to decongest traffic in the city. CMDA member secretary Vikram Kapur told Deccan Chronicle, “We have pla-nned to develop an outer ring road along the periphery of Chennai Metropolitan Area with the objective of relieving congestion within the city and catalysing even dispersal of urban growth.” The outer ring road will connect four national highways – NH 45 at Vandalur, NH 4 at Nazarathpet, NH 205 at Nemilichery and NH 5 at Nallur – and the Thiruvottiyur Ponneri-Panjetty Road at Minjur covering 62.3 km. The cost for this road with six lanes is estimated to be about Rs 850 crore.

The CMDA would acquire land for the ORR in two phases, Mr Kapur said. The first phase of land acquisition from NH 45 to NH 205 for a length of 29.5 km covering 29 villages had been completed and the second phase of acquisition from NH 205 to TPP Road covering 28 villages was under progress. “We expect the land acquisition to be completed by this year end and execution of the project would begin in 2009,” he added. “This project will help divert traffic emanating from Chennai-Tiruchi road, Chennai-Bangalore road, Chennai-Tiruvallur high road, Chennai-Nellore road and Tiruvottiyur-Ponneri-Panjetty road,” he said.

The member secretary said that a consultancy study for the preparation of a detailed feasibility report (DFR) for the project had been completed. “On getting the state government’s approval of the DFR, the preparation of a detailed project report will be taken up after which execution of the work will begin,” he said.

http://www.deccan.com/chennaichronic...alur,%20Minjur

[Elango1984]

Work on converting the Thiruvottiyur- Ponneri-Panchetty Road into a four-lane highway has been dragging on for over two years now forcing vehicles to crawl and causing regular traffic snarls in the northern suburbs of the city. “As the existing road is in a bad condition, the vehicles are moving at a snail’s pace on the 9 km long stretch resulting in traffic jams. Adding to our woes is the unregulated parking of trailers on either side of the road,” Subramani, a resident of Manali New Town, complained.

No action had been taken despite the road blockade staged by the residents last month in protest against the poor road condition, he said. S. Gowri Sekar, a motorcyclist residing at Minjur BDO office area, said, “I used to reach my home in half an hour from the MFL junction at Manali. Now it takes more than one and a half hours for me to travel the same distance.” The government must speed up the work and for the time being relay the existing road to ease the flow of traffic, he added.

The four-lane work was launched in March 2006 as part of the Rs. 309 crore Chennai-Ennore Port connectivity project for container traffic between the ports. The project included laying of a service road, prevention of sea erosion along the Ennore Expressway and strengthening of the Inner Ring Road and Manali Oil Refinery Road. A senior NHAI official told Deccan Chronicle that problems in land acquisition had delayed the implementation of the project.

“We have now called for fresh bids. The new contractor will commence work in January first week and we expect all the works to be completed in two years time,” the official said.
“As a stop gap arrangement, we have allocated Rs 4.5 crore to carry out maintenance work on the damaged roads,” he said.

http://www.deccan.com/chennaichronic...ts%20roadblock

[gandharva95]

10 arterial roads to be widened
Jeeva | TNN

Source: Times of India Chennai, 20/10/2008

Chennai: Vehicle population in the Chennai Metropolitan Area has crossed 32 lakh. Over 1,000 new vehicles are hitting the roads daily.

These choking statistics on multiplying vehicles and dwindling road space have forced the state highways department to widen (four-lane) ten arterial roads in the city outskirts.

Prominent roads including East Coast Road, Mount-Medavakkam High Road and Poonamallee Town Road are to get more breathing space.
Vandalur-Kelambakkam Road, Medvakkam-Sholinganallur Road, Vanagaram–Ambattur Road, Thirumazhisai–Tiruvallur Road, Poonamallee Town Road, Madhavaram–Redhills Road and, Ernavoor Toll Gate Road in the suburbs besides a stretch of Poonamallee High Road in the city are also to be widened to ease the traffic congestion.

Official sources say 80% of work on Vandalur–Kelambakkam Road to make it four lane has been completed. However, delay in land acquisition are a bump in the four-laning of many roads including Mount–Medavakkam Road and Madhavaram–Redhills Road where work has commenced.

State highways department plans to make part of East Coast Road – from Thiruvanmiyur to Akkarai village in Sholinganallur – six-lane road.

Marking of lands in Palavakkam, Eenjambakkam and Neelankarai which need to be acquired for road widening has been completed while the work is yet to be done in Thiruvanmiyur, Kottivakkam and Sozhinganallur areas.

“We need a riding surface of 15 metres for a four-lane road and 30 metres in case of a six-lane road.

But land acquisition, shortage of manpower and lack of co-ordination between highways and revenue departments contribute to the delay in several works,’’ sources said.

It was decided a year ago, officials say, to widen the East Coast Road. But survey and marking of lands have been delayed due to a myriad reasons.

The state government has received a proposal to widen the Poonamallee High Road for half-a-km distance in Aminjikarai area. Two days ago, the highways department removed encroachments along the Cooum river in Aminjikarai to construct a new bridge across the river at a cost of Rs five crore.

[Arul Murugan]

Originally Posted by gandharva95

10 arterial roads to be widened
Jeeva | TNN

[B]Vandalur-Kelambakkam Road, Medvakkam-Sholinganallur Road, Official sources say 80% of work on Vandalur–Kelambakkam Road to make it four lane has been completed. However, delay in land acquisition are a bump in the four-laning of many roads including Mount–Medavakkam Road and Madhavaram–Redhills Road where work has commenced.

State highways department plans to make part of East Coast Road – from Thiruvanmiyur to Akkarai village in Sholinganallur – six-lane road.

Vandalur-Kelambakkam 4 laning work was in progress since 2006... If completed, it will be an alternate and faster(less traffic) route to IT corridor from Chengalpattu.

ECR - 6 lanes??? from T.vanmiyur?? I think it is impossible... from T.vanmiyur bus terminus to Kottivakkam we can see buildings on both the sides.. even few mid rise buildings are there in RTO.. Then how can they acquire land for 6 lanes + parking + bus stops?!?!

[dis.agree]

Originally Posted by Arul Murugan

Vandalur-Kelambakkam 4 laning work was in progress since 2006... If completed, it will be an alternate and faster(less traffic) route to IT corridor from Chengalpattu.

ECR - 6 lanes??? from T.vanmiyur?? I think it is impossible... from T.vanmiyur bus terminus to Kottivakkam we can see buildings on both the sides.. even few mid rise buildings are there in RTO.. Then how can they acquire land for 6 lanes + parking + bus stops?!?!

first of all, not many would live in chengalpattu for this road to be widened to reach it corridor. second, even if they did, they would not use this road. kelambakkam is quite south of vandulur. they would either reach omr at thiruporur from chengalpattu or come to tambaram to reach sholing.

this road would be part of orr and would also help people using bypass road to reach ecr/omr & also in the opposite direction.

[Arul Murugan]

Accepeted.

Let me correct as suburbs between for Chengalpattu and Tambaram, this link road will useful for connecting to IT corridor!!

Chengalptattu to Siruseri Sipcot via Vandalor/Kelambakkam will be 10KMs more when compared to to Via Thiruporur.

I have seen few corporates buses plying from SIPCOT to Vandalur and the proceed to Chennai byepass/few to Tambaram and few to Chengalpattu.

But that 2 lane road use to carry lots of vehicles...

[lakshman]

We never got any such news in the hindu on 16th oct regarding ORR.Any way as said by cmda cheif i think work on ORR will start by next year.There will be complete change in the realestate outlook of chennai once the work of ORR starts and also Omr will not be further given imp by investors because already many residential project r unsold and with the decline in IT sector the Omr's imp will decline once ORR work starts and also starting of Orr will see new hidden areas get developed for example areas in and around kundrathur in west ect and this Orr will also fuel growth of the oragadam belt as it cuts the vandalur oragadam road.

[gandharva95]

Work on median from Medavakkam on Velachery Main Road begins

In the first phase, the median will be built for a length of five km

The entire stretch till East Tambaram will be covered after April

next year

source:

http://www.hindu.com/2008/11/01/stor...0159540400.htm



TAMBARAM: The State Highways Department has started work on building permanent, raised medians on Velachery Main Road, an important arterial road in the southern suburbs of Chennai, for improving riding conditions and reducing accident rate.

The Rs.2 crore-project is being taken up for a stretch of 5 km between Medavakkam and Mahalakshmi Nagar near Tambaram in the first phase. The road has several improvement works, including widening from two-lanes to four-lanes all along the 21-km-long stretch between Tambaram and Saidapet via Velachery (except certain narrow spots in Selaiyur and Pallikaranai) among others since 1998.

Though slightly raised medians were provided then, they became useless owing to re-laying of roads, which raised the surface on a par with the medians. Due to this, criss-crossing riding of vehicles that climbed over the medians and pedestrians walking across the road in the absence of designated zebra crossings contributed immensely to unsafe riding conditions.

Concern was expressed over the high rate of accidents in the past couple of years in the bi-monthly meetings of the Kancheepuram District Road Safety Council. But it was the accident in Gowrivakkam on June 28 killing two men that speeded up the process of building the medians.

A.R.D.Loganathan, president of Sembakkam Town Panchayat, in whose limits the accident took place, wrote to various government officials and also enclosed media reports about the accident with his letter.

Around the same time, the council met in Kancheepuram and Collector Santhosh K. Misra, its chairman, made it clear to the officials of the Highways Department the need for medians to prevent accidents. Soon, paper work for calling tenders for building the medians were prepared.

The Chennai City Roads Division of the department was entrusted with the task of building the medians. Officials said that in addition to the Kancheepuram Collector’s instructions, they too had, in the past, submitted reports about the need for medians, for which they had a strong case and hence they were able to begin work at the earliest. Initially, the median would be built for a length of five km and after April next year, the entire stretch till East Tambaram would be covered.
Repair works on

Officials also said that they had started repair works on Velachery Main Road and Grand Southern Trunk Road on damaged stretches following the heavy rains. On GST Road, severely damaged spots were near the Chennai Airport, the Kathipara intersection and other places around Tambaram.

On Velachery Main Road, the worst affected spots were in Pallikaranai, Medavakkam, Selaiyur, Kamarajapuram, and East Tambaram. As it was laid three years ago, it was time for routine maintenance, the officials said.

[Elango1984]

After completion of Padi flyover project, Chennai-Tripathi ( NH-205 ) will be widened from Beginning of 2009 - T.R.Balu



http://district.dinamalar.com/distri...E0%AF%88#97469

[gandharva95]