Plan to reinforce shoulders of Seaport-Airport Road with paver blocks, concrete, and mud
In the wake of fatal accidents involving two-wheeler riders losing balance at low-lying shoulders and getting run over by lorries, demand is rife that the PWD raise the shoulders to the same level as that of the carriageway to ensure the safety of all types of road users
The overgrowth of weeds on either side of Seaport-Airport hampers visibility, especially at curves, causing accidents.
| Photo Credit: FILE PHOTO
Close on the heels of the Motor Vehicles department (MVD) directing the PWD (Roads wing) to ensure that the shoulders on either side of the 16-km Seaport-Airport Road were raised to the same level as that of the carriageway of the road, the PWD has submitted a proposal to the State government to allot funds to raise the shoulders using paver blocks, concrete, and mud.
The direction was issued by the Ernakulam Regional Transport Officer earlier this month, after he saw a two-wheeler and its rider slip and fall onto the road shoulder due to the noticeable difference in height between the tarred carriageway and the shoulder on the western side of the road, in front of Cooperative Hospital in the Collectorate Junction-Olimugal corridor. The rider escaped with injuries.
“Most shoulders of the congested two-lane road that caters for thousands of passenger and goods vehicles [which include vehicles carrying fuel from Kochi Refinery, chemicals, and other hazardous cargo] have been washed away due to mud erosion,” the official said. Making matters worse, the overgrowth of weeds on either side hampers visibility, especially at curves, causing accidents. The PWD that maintains the road must take speedy measures to ensure the safety of motorists and pedestrians, while local bodies must evict kiosks and other encroachments from either side of the road, the official added.
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In the wake of a spree of fatal accidents involving two-wheeler riders losing balance at low-lying shoulders and getting run over by lorries, commuters, residents associations, and the Trikkakara Development Forum had been demanding during the past years that the PWD raise the shoulders to the same level as that of the carriageway, to ensure the safety of all types of road users. There was also a demand to ready multi-level parking lots at nearby Infopark to check haphazard parking, since most IT professionals and others employed there depended on private vehicles due to inadequate number of bus services to Kochi’s IT hub. Yet another of their demands was to install street lights on Seaport-Airport Road.
Responding to these issues, sources in the PWD (Roads wing) said they hoped to use paver blocks and also concrete in order to raise the shoulders where there was a big difference in level with the tarred road surface. The rest of the areas will be filled with mud, and steps will be taken to reinforce it. “The State government must allot funds for this. As for street lights, Thrikkakara and Thripunithura municipalities and the other local bodies concerned must install them, since the PWD does only civil works,” they said.
The four-laning of the congested road too is overdue, on the Bharata Matha College-Irumpanam stretch. The Roads and Bridges Development Corporation of Kerala that developed the road two decades ago ought to do this, they added.
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