Making of Bandra-Worli Sea Link

“This project gave us an opportunity to showcase our equipment”

		Rakesh Kaul says Rakesh Kaul, General Manager, Elcome Technologies Pvt. Ltd., with reference to the survey equipment that they supplied for the Bandra-Worli Sea Link.

When did Elcome Technologies first get associated with HCC on the Bandra- Worli Sea Link Project? Leica equipment has been used on most of the Sea Link projects around the world and based on this experience we approached Hindustan Construction Company (HCC) sometime at the end of 2000 with our range of specialised equipments for the Bandra-Worli Sea Link (BWSL). The first Leica Total Station was supplied by us to HCC in early 2001. What were the equipment supplied for this project? To meet the demand for high accuracy coordinate measurements on the BWSL project we supplied high performance Leica Total Stations including the TCA 2003, the TCA 1800, the TCA 1201, the TCRM 1201 R 300 and the TC 1800. We also supplied the SR 510 GPS equipment. What kind of support did you provide HCC vis-à-vis the equipment that you supplied to them? We gave comprehensive application trainings at their site towards effective and optimal usage of the equipment. Moreover, these equipments in keeping the desired accuracies that are required for such a project, needed timely calibration checks and corrections – for this, besides providing them complete service support during the warranty, we also got into annual maintenance contracts for these equipment post their warranty period. We were thus able to provide timely service and calibration of the equipment at our service centre. Do you think being associated with the project gives Elcome Technologies any leverage for other similar projects? It has been a privilege to be associated with BWSL and the HCC team we worked with. Moreover the challenges in geometric control on the project were highly demanding and exacting. This gave us an opportunity to showcase our equipment and our expertise. Our experience with BWSL project will be a basis for us to promote our technology on other such projects too.

Partners involved 1. VSL Singapore Pvt Ltd : Technical Consultants
2. Ultra Tech : Supplier of cement
3. Metco group of companies: Supplier of bearings
4. Tata Steel, RIN Ltd & SAIL: Supplier of steel
5. ELKEM International Ltd.: Norway-based company supplier of micro silica
6. SPCC: China-based company supplier of stay cable
7. DOKA Australia: supplier of Plyon fromwork
Equipment used
The major equipments deployed for this project are:
• Jack up platform, launching truss, reverse circulation drilling machine floating barrages, boats, crawler crane, tower crane, gantry crane, derrick crane, placer boom, diesel generators, concrete pump, transit mixers & ‘A’ frame barrage.
• The equipment was brought together from various countries.
The construction of the mammoth bridge structure required huge cranes and other structures to lift material for off shore and on shore structures. Some of these included:
1. Launching Truss: Weighing 1250 tonnes and measuring 112 m in length, it was used for lifting segments each weighing 130 tonnes. This has been fabricated in India.
2. Jack up platform: Size 18.3x30x2.1m (Width x Length x Depth) having four legs of 30m. It is a floating equipment used for marine work.
3. Flat barge: Size 30x12x2m. Like motor boats, they are driven inside the sea for material transportation.
4. Self-propelled barge: It is a barge with a machine component and is used for concrete transportation.
5. Crawler crane: Capacity ranges from 75-150 tons. It is used for material and heavy lifting activities.
6. RCD drill bit: Dimension 1.5m x 2m diameter. Imported from Korea, the RCD drill bit is used for pile drilling work.
7. Vibro hammer (PTC): Imported from France and used for driving of steel liners.
8. Fushun crawler crane: Imported from China, Capacity 80 tons.
9. NCK Eiger crane: Imported from England, capacity 65 tons.
10. Kobelco crawler crane: Imported from Hong Kong, capacity 150 tons. Fascinating facts • The project has already been acclaimed by the viewers as an engineering marvel of modern India.
• First Cable-Stay Bridge in India in open sea.
• The length of the bridge is 63 times the height of the Qutub Minar in Delhi.
• Its weight is equivalent to 50,000 African elephants.
• The length of the steel wires used is equivalent to the circumference of the earth.
• The height of the cable-stayed tower is 128 m, which is equal to a 43-storey building.
• A total of 424 cables were used for both Bandra cable stay as well as Worli cable stay bridges.
• The cables have been sourced from Shanghai Pujyang Cable Company, China. The cables were subject to a series of quality and engineering tests to meet the special requirements including fatigue tests of two million cycles.
• The cables are made of high tensile steel and are designed to take the maximum load of 900 tons.
• 92,000 tons of cement was utilized to make BWSL.
• Environment friendliness was top priority during the construction – fly ash, a waste product extracted from thermal power plants, was mixed with concrete, to make the construction durable as well as eco-friendly, thus making good use of waste material.
• The construction team is like a mini United Nations: several teams of foreign engineers and technicians have worked on specialized tasks on the structure; these include professionals from China, Egypt, Canada, Switzerland, Britain, Serbia, Singapore, Thailand, Hong Kong, Indonesia and the Philippines, Australia.
• The Launching Trusses, each 112 meters long, were custom built to precision by HCC for this project. The pre-cast concrete segments of this four-lane road are fabricated at the Bandra site location. These segments are then carried on a barge to the construction location and are lifted by the Launching Truss to the designated height and assembled between two piers, each 50 meters apart. Fifteen such segments are fitted between two piers and the Launching Truss can lift all fifteen segments together, weighing 130 tons each, between two piers. Once these segments are fixed between two piers, the Launching
Truss crawls to the next piers on its mechanical legs.
• Given the gigantic size of the project, mega equipments were used in construction; bringing them to the project site and operating them was a feat in itself. Asian Hercules, one of the biggest floating shear leg cranes in the world, was hired from Singapore to lift the massive 1250 tonnes, custom-built Launching Trusses with its mechanical arm and relocate them on the Worli side of the bridge.
Hindustan Construction Company (HCC)
1. VSL Singapore Pvt Ltd : Technical Consultants
2. Ultra Tech : Supplier of cement
3. Metco group of companies: Supplier of bearings
4. Tata Steel, RIN Ltd & SAIL: Supplier of steel
5. ELKEM International Ltd.: Norway-based company supplier of micro silica
6. SPCC: China-based company supplier of stay cable
7. DOKA Australia: supplier of Plyon fromwork Equipment used The major equipments deployed for this project are:
• Jack up platform, launching truss, reverse circulation drilling machine floating barrages, boats, crawler crane, tower crane, gantry crane, derrick crane, placer boom, diesel generators, concrete pump, transit mixers & ‘A’ frame barrage.
• The equipment was brought together from various countries.
The construction of the mammoth bridge structure required huge cranes and other structures to lift material for off shore and on shore structures. Some of these included:
1. Launching Truss: Weighing 1250 tonnes and measuring 112 m in length, it was used for lifting segments each weighing 130 tonnes. This has been fabricated in India.
2. Jack up platform: Size 18.3x30x2.1m (Width x Length x Depth) having four legs of 30m. It is a floating equipment used for marine work.
3. Flat barge: Size 30x12x2m. Like motor boats, they are driven inside the sea for material transportation.
4. Self-propelled barge: It is a barge with a machine component and is used for concrete transportation.
5. Crawler crane: Capacity ranges from 75-150 tons. It is used for material and heavy lifting activities.
6. RCD drill bit: Dimension 1.5m x 2m diameter. Imported from Korea, the RCD drill bit is used for pile drilling work.
7. Vibro hammer (PTC): Imported from France and used for driving of steel liners.
8. Fushun crawler crane: Imported from China, Capacity 80 tons.
9. NCK Eiger crane: Imported from England, capacity 65 tons.
10. Kobelco crawler crane: Imported from Hong Kong, capacity 150 tons. Fascinating facts • The project has already been acclaimed by the viewers as an engineering marvel of modern India.
• First Cable-Stay Bridge in India in open sea.
• The length of the bridge is 63 times the height of the Qutub Minar in Delhi.
• Its weight is equivalent to 50,000 African elephants.
• The length of the steel wires used is equivalent to the circumference of the earth.
• The height of the cable-stayed tower is 128 m, which is equal to a 43-storey building.
• A total of 424 cables were used for both Bandra cable stay as well as Worli cable stay bridges.
• The cables have been sourced from Shanghai Pujyang Cable Company, China. The cables
were subject to a series of quality and engineering tests to meet the special requirements including fatigue tests of two million cycles.
• The cables are made of high tensile steel and are designed to take the maximum load of 900 tons.
• 92,000 tons of cement was utilized to make BWSL.
• Environment friendliness was top priority during the construction – fly ash, a waste product extracted from thermal power plants, was mixed with concrete, to make the construction durable as well as eco-friendly, thus making good use of waste material.
• The construction team is like a mini United Nations: several teams of foreign engineers and technicians have worked on specialized tasks on the structure; these include professionals from China, Egypt, Canada, Switzerland, Britain, Serbia, Singapore, Thailand, Hong Kong, Indonesia and the Philippines, Australia.
• The Launching Trusses, each 112 meters long, were custom built to precision by HCC for this project. The pre-cast concrete segments of this four-lane road are fabricated at the Bandra site location. These segments are then carried on a barge to the construction location and are lifted by the Launching Truss to the designated height and assembled between two piers, each 50 meters apart. Fifteen such segments are fitted between two piers and the Launching Truss can lift all fifteen segments together, weighing 130 tons each, between two piers. Once these segments are fixed between two piers, the Launching
Truss crawls to the next piers on its mechanical legs.
• Given the gigantic size of the project, mega equipments were used in construction;
bringing them to the project site and operating them was a feat in itself. Asian Hercules, one of the biggest floating shear leg cranes in the world, was hired from Singapore to lift the massive 1250 tonnes, custom-built Launching Trusses with its mechanical arm and relocate them on the Worli side of the bridge. Hindustan Construction Company (HCC).