Metro project comes alive at night!
Posted on: 09/Dec/2014 9:26:07 AM
The men and their machines together are in the process of creating one of the most magnificent structures that the city has seen in modern times - the Chennai metro rail!
While Chennai settles down for the night, men and machines at the metro construction sites work with renewed vigour to build the city’s integrated, rapid transport system.
From the road, all that is visible of the barricaded zone are the orange colored gantry cranes, accompanied by loud noises of machines at work. But six meters below the surface at the site of metro’s underground station, it is a different world.
It is 10 at night and movement on Poonamallee high road has receded to a few vehicles and fewer people.
Eighteen metres below the ground, a machine churns out soil, eating through the belly of the city, and creating one of the most magnificent structures that the city is ever going to see.
The site houses the underground metro station presently under construction.
Inside the barricades filled with trucks and construction material, a series of steps lead to the station below. Steps lead six metres below the ground to the concourse where the ticket vending area will be located. The overbearing smell of concrete fills the air. Pipes and rugged white walls surround the concourse.
The concourse also holds a temporary multipurpose shed with tables, benches and charts on safety precautions. The shed is a place for workers to relax and also for debriefing meetings on the work.
After the concourse, another series of stairs lead to the platform below, nine metres further down. The platforms are in various stages of construction. The station will have two platforms, one for the up and the other for the down line train, each emerging from the four tunnels on either side of the two platforms
Excavation and station works go on throughout the day. It is only the transportation of the soil from the site that takes place in the night as there are restrictions on the movement of heavy vehicles in the day. Till then, the excavated soil is collected in a large pit.
A mini train runs into the platform from one of the unfinished tunnels where the TBM is digging. Called the loco muck skip, it carries three loads, each containing 6 cubic metres of soil, every hour. The loco stands below a gaping hole through which the gantry cranes located on the surface lift up the soil.
Fifteen metres below, the temperature rises drastically, compared to the outside. To make it viable for workers, a cooler runs, maintaining the temperature at 31 degrees Celsius
Through the station, two tunnels move out towards Shenoy Nagar and Kilpauk stations on either side. White coloured and illuminated with tubes, the tunnels look endless. Made of rings of concrete slabs interlocked with each other, the 983-metres-long tunnel towards Shenoy Nagar is almost complete. The Kilpauk tunnel is 900 metres long.
The work at night givers an idea about the true magnitude of the marvel project of Chennai Metro!
