Maharashtra’s longest tunnel is an engineering marvel

26 Jul 2022 CW Team

The Mumbai-Nagpur Samruddhi Mahamarg has given Maharashtra its longest tunnel! Afcons recently completed the civil work of the 7.78-km twin tunnel. The company is constructing what is slated to be India’s widest and Maharashtra’s longest twin tunnels in the 701-km Maharashtra Samruddhi Mahamarg. It is part of Package 14, which will connect Pimpri Saroddin to Vashala Budruk. The total length of the project is 13.1 km, which includes two viaducts, twin tunnels of length 7.78 km and an interchange. The first viaduct is a simply supported I-girder bridge of 910m, and the second viaduct is a balanced cantilever box girder bridge of 1,295m,with a maximum height of 60m.

“The twin tunnelshave been executed with the New Austrian Tunnelling Method (NATM), which consists of a 70-m vertical shaft of 7m diameterand an inclined shaft of 504m,” shares Sekhar Das, Project Manager, PKG-14 - Maharashtra Samruddhi Mahamarg.“The entire carriageway will be completed using pavement quality concrete.”

CW takes a deep dive into various aspects of the project.

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