NHAI sets up unit to review design, construction of bridges, structures

National Highway Authority of India (NHAI) on Wednesday announced that it has set up a design division to review the design and construction of bridges and other structures.

"For effective review of design and construction of bridges, specialised structures and tunnels, the NHAI has set up a design division that will formulate policy and guidelines for planning, designing, construction and maintenance of bridges, structures, tunnels and RE walls on national highways across the country," a road, transport and highways ministry statement said.

According to the statement, the division will review the project preparation, construction of new bridges, condition surveys and rehabilitation of existing old/ distressed bridges, instrumentation to check the health of critical bridges, structures, tunnels and RE walls.

It will also review standalone bridges and specialized structures, which are at the stage of preparation of detailed project report where DPRs started post June 2023.

In addition, the new division will also undertake review of construction methodologies, temporary structures, lifting and launching methods and prestressing methods of selected bridges and structures with a span of more than 200 metres and special structures on random basis.

Apart from this, review of designs of all bridges/structures which are more than 200 metres in ongoing projects shall be undertaken.

Also, designs of other bridges spanning more than 60 metres, structures and tunnels of more than 200 metre length, RE walls above 10 metre height and other specialized structures will be reviewed on random basis.

For undertaking design reviews, the division will hire advisers, form consultants teams comprising bridge design experts, tunnel experts, RE wall experts, geotech experts, soil/material testing labs etc. The division will also involve design experts/ research scholars/PG students from IITs/NITs for undertaking design reviews of structures, as required.

In addition, the division will organize certification courses for officers of MoRTH, NHAI, NHIDCL and personnel of contractors/consultants on various aspects of design, construction, supervision & maintenance of bridges, tunnels and RE walls through Indian Academy of Highway Engineers (IAHE), Noida and Indian Railways Institute of Civil Engineering (IRICEL), Pune.

An IT based monitoring system will be developed by the design division for bridge inventory, drawings, identification of distressed bridges and will also propose an annual plan for their repair and construction.

It will also nominate a team of experts in case of failure of bridges, structures, tunnel and RE walls for detailed analysis and issue guidelines to prevent such failures in future.

With large number of national highway infrastructure development being under implementation across the country, the design division will help to build in-house capacity for designing, proof checking and construction of bridges and other critical structures, it stated.