NB Explains | Mumbai Trans Harbour Link : Know why India's longest sea bridge is Engineering Marvel

In a significant milestone for the Mumbai Trans Harbour Link (MTHL) project, Maharashtra Chief Minister Eknath Shinde today (May 24) flagged off a bus that traversed across the sea bridge. On board the bus were project managers, engineers and workforce involved with MTHL.

 

Deputy Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis was also present on the occasion. Fadnavis took a car ride across the sea bridge.

 

 

This is the first time this technology was used in India. This is used for laying the pile foundation. Usually, a vertical drilling method is used to lay a pile foundation. This creates a lot of noise, disturbing the surroundings.

 

The Mumbai Trans-Harbour Link is a six-lane 22-km-long bridge which is being touted as India's longest sea bridge. It will reduce the travel time between Sewri in Mumbai to Chirle in Navi Mumbai from 1.5 hours to 20 minutes.

 

 

 

The project consists of sea crossing section of around 16.5 km and land section of remaining 5.5 km, is designed for a vehicular speed of 100 kmph.The project cost is Rs 17,843 crore.

 

 

The link has interchanges at Sewri in Central Mumbai, Shivaji Nagar at Mumbai Bay and NH-4 B at Chirle, Navi Mumbai. Popularly known as the Sewri Nhava Sheva Harbour Link, the sea link connects Sewri in Mumbai to Chirle in Navi Mumbai, there by, reducing the travel time between South Mumbai and Navi Mumbai to just 20 minutes from the present two hours.

 

This is an extremely crucial feature. The sea link passes through one of the busiest navigational channels leading to Nhava Sheva Port. And that is why it was important to build a sea bridge that will help facilitate the movement of merchant vessels. Orthotropic Steel Decks are special steel decks that enable a span (distance between two piers) that is up to three times longer than the norm. These have been used in stretches that are navigational channels for large ships. 70 long spans consisting of Orthotropic Steel Decks have been installed in the MTHL. Each has a different span length – varying from 65 metres to 180 metres. If you take a close look at the sea bridge, you will realise that not just the distance between the two piers, but also the height of the bridge is uneven at different locations.

 

 

1,70,000 metre tonne of steel bars used in the MHTL which is the weight of 17 Eiffel towers.

 

Around 35 km pile liners used which is 35 times taller than Burj Khalifa

 

9,75,000 cubic metre of concrete used which is 6 times the concrete used in the Statue of Liberty.