By Pavan Kaushik

Who can forget the year 2013 when humanity saw one of the worst natural disasters in the history of India. Due to cloudbursts in the state of Uttarakhand, the flash floods in river Ganga and landslides washed away thousands of lives. The Kedarnath bridge at Sonprayag also washed out due to heavy floods. The death toll and destruction was so massive that it left the region devastated.

Construction of Bailey Bridge

Subsequently, a Bailey Bridge (a portable, pre-fabricated, truss bridge) was built by the Border Roads Organisation, limiting the traffic to one way and a maximum load of 12 tonnes at the most. But June 2015 saw more floods and this bridge was also washed away.

Challenges in Bridge Construction

Since the Temple is 3500 feet above sea level and is situated in challenging topography, the construction of a stronger flawless bridge required more than 3 years to build. Further, since the bridge was to be built in such difficult conditions, it would have been impossible to regularly protect or maintain.

Decision for Galvanized Steel Bridge

It was decided finally that the new bridge has to be made of galvanized steel to ensure that it does not collapse. But galvanizing in this remote town was not easily available.

Importing Galvanized Bridge from the USA

Thus, the galvanized bridge was shipped in containers from the USA, completed, and became operational in an incredible 45 days. In the new bridge, all the panel chords, diagonals, verticals, raker, reinforcing chords along with all the structural beam members and flooring were hot dip galvanized.