1914 Railroad: (
Satellite, middle bridge, 15,183 photos)
1988 Road: (
Satellite, south bridge) Officially: Annai Indira Gandhi Road Bridge
2023 (planned) Railroad: (
Satellite, north bridge)
"It is the first sea bridge to be constructed in India. With a length of 2.3 km (road bridge) and 2.6 km (rail bridge),...this bridge was completed in 1912, its construction was started in the year of 1887....This road bridge is also known as Annai Indira Gandhi Road Bridge. Pamban Bridge is the second largest bridge in India, after the Bandra-Worli sea link, which has been constructed recently. The Pamban rail bridge is also considered to be the longest rail bridge. This railway bridge has been upgraded to carry broad gauge trains by Indian Railways in 2007." [
RameshwaramTourism]
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ZeeNews
The original railroad bridge was damaged by a Tsunami in 1964. In the background is the construction of the 2023 lift bridge.
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I don't know where and when this truss bridge was built. Did they grab a photo from somewhere else? But the steel girder railroad bridge having a safety island on every fourth pier is consistent with the Pamban bridge.
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Highway Engineering Discoveries posted
Pamban Bridge, Tamil Nadu |
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livemint
"Talking to ANI, the General Manager of Southern Railway said, 'The old Pamban bridge was commissioned on February 24, 1914. So, almost 108 years passed, and now the time has come to move forward with new technologies. The estimated cost of the new bridge is ₹250 crore and the target is to complete it this year only.' [The cost was over 400 crore and it did not complete in 2020. In fact, we will see if it meets the current (Sep 2023) expectation of Dec 2023. Whoops, just saw a figure of 535 crore. [NewIndianExpress]]
"Giving information about this bridge, the Divisional Engineer and Incharge of Pamban Bridge, Hridayesh Kumar said, 'The existing bridge structure has a total length of 2,058 metres comprising 146 spans of steel girders. There are 145 spans of 12.20 m and one navigational span of 61.0 m. The navigational span is also known as Scherzer rolling lift span after the name of railroad engineer William Scherzer who invented it.'
"'The vertical clearance of only 1.5 m is available between the high tide level and the bottom of the girder resulting in the splashing of seawater on the girders. In comparison, the new bridge will have 100 spans of 18.3 m and one navigational span of 63 m. It will be 3.0 m higher than the existing bridge with navigational air clearance of 22.0m above sea level,' he further added. |
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cecr
This source says: "The railway bridge is located 12.5 m (41 ft) above sea level." The 1.5m (5') clearance stated in the above livemint reference appears to be more accurate. |
The main span of the road bridge appears to be a box concrete girder with cantilevered ends. The regular spans appear to be steel girders.
I think that is a temporary construction trestle in the background.
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ArtsAndCulture
[This web page has a lot of photos and details about how the Scherzer span works. I think the counterweight is heavier than span because the radius from the pivot contact is shorter. This is the first time that I have seen the extra framework added to help hold the live load. Now I wonder how regular Scherzer spans hold the extra weight of a train.] |
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iastoppers_article, p1 via iastoppers_web
"It will ensure that the trains, which currently operate at a maximum speed of just 10 kmph will be able to cross 2km distance at over 80 kmph.
"It is expected to give a boost to the tourism industry in this region, especially for pilgrimage purposes as a large number of devotees, every year, visit Rameshwaram Temple and Jyotirling." |
I noticed that iastoppers cropped out the steam locomotive in the rendering of the new bridge.
Aug 5, 2023:
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NewIndianExpress_aug_5_2023
Construction began in 2019. The bridge originally was to be completed in Mar 2023. This article says it is being delayed from Aug to Sep. And the cost has more than doubled the original estimate to 545 crore. |
The repeated completion delays are very significant because the old bridge was shutdown in Dec 2022 because of excessive vibrations. [
NewIndianExpress_apr_3_2023] This NewIndianExpress April article says the rail tracks are being dismantled while this
March IndianRailways article says they are going to study repairing the old bridge to put it back in service. Did that study conclude in a matter of days that it was hopeless?
In Sep, they announced they may miss a Nov deadline. "The railway bridge connects the mainland to Rameswaram, the South Indian town which is also one of the four Char Dham pilgrimage sites along with Badrinath in the north, Dwarka in the west, and Puri in the east." [
TheHindu]
I can't find a date for
this article that states the bridge "is expected to be operational in December 2023."
In Nov 2020, it was expected to be complete in Dec 2021! [
cec-iitr] That would have been a year before they closed the old bridge and two years before it was actually completed.
They still had a long ways to go in Jan 2022.
I hope that they dismantle just the rail tracks and turn it into a pedestrian bridge. Otherwise, the following effort seems to be in vain.
The Indian Railway is keen on getting the Pamban Railway Bridge its well deserved UNSECO “World heritage sites list” which is the United Nations body for culture. .The other two railway sites which were conferred the world heritage site status are the Nilgiris Mountain Railway (NMR) and Darjeeling Himalayan Railway (DHR).
The island depends on tourism and fishing, both of which are impacted by each additional month that the bridge's completion is delayed. Even if one is not a pilgrim, the temples look like they are worth visiting.
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