Eastern Freeway update

1 ORANGE GATE NEAR COLABA ON P D’MELLO ROAD
An elevated 9.29 km road with two lanes each
Has four pairs of ramps for exit and entry at Orange gate, on the Reay road-Port road stretch, at Barkat Ali road and at the Anik junction
COST : 749.89 Crore
DEADLINE :MAY 2013
2 ANIK TO PANJARPOL LINK ROAD
A 5-km eight-lane road including two 550-meter tunnels
The four-lane tunnels resemble those on the Mumbai-Pune expressway
A road-over-bridge over the RCF and Trombay rail tracks connects refineries
COST : 221.64 Crore
DEADLINE :MAY 2013 (for one north-bound tunnel)
3 PANJARPOL–GHATKOPAR LINK ROAD
2.8 km four-lane elevated road from Panjarpol (near RK studios in Chembur) up to Ghatkopar-Mankhurd link road near Deonar dumping yard
At 70-feet high, the flyover, built to accommodate the metro line alignment below, will be the tallest in the country
Five ramps, including two near Deonar at Govandi and Panjarpol

ABOUT THE FREEWAY
Initially only a 14-km four-lane road from Orange gate to Panjarpol will be opened for traffic, after completion of Panjarpol-Ghatkopar elevated section, an eight-lane 5 km section between Panjarpol-Wadala with second tunnel will be opened
Segments put on pillars to lay flyover portions
3,346 Piles dug up to build pillars
1,647 Spans made by joining segments between pillars
346 Pillars
355 I-girders on pillars
99 Average weight of each segment
75 tons Earthquake-resistant structure, it comes under seismic zone III It is designed to take tremors of 7.5 on the Richter scale
Vehicles expected to use the freeway every day:| 30,000
Reinforcement: 32,000 metric tons
High tensile steel:2,000 metric tons
Around 10 MMRDA engineers, 20 other officials, 50 contractors, and over 1,500 labourers worked on the project since 2009
MISSING LINK BRIDGED
A 700-metre stretch passing below the Orange Gate-Wadala flyover part of Freeway through the Sewri saltpan land will be the missing link between the Sewri-Wadala-Chembur road and Port or Mahul road. “This is the missing link which passes below the flyover’s (between Orange Gate and Wadala) Wadala end up to Port road. Once we connect that, traffic will be able to move below the flyover too,” said MMRDA chief engineer Sharad Sabnis. Superintending engineer Prabhakar Deshmukh said this will provide a continuous road under the 9.29 km flyover and vehicles will be able to take this road right from the Wadala ramp. “Work on strengthening the foundation for this road has begun and it will hopefully be in place by the end of this year,” said Sabnis.