Reconstruction of Kochchikade Bridge project making fast progress

The reconstruction of Kochichikade Bridge across Mahaoya River on Peliyagoda – Puttalam road (A3) by 

Access Engineering PLC 

is making a swift progress

The Paliyagoda-Puttalam road is a trunk road linking some of the principal districts and provincial centres in the country and Mahaoya River is one of the largest perennial rivers which has over 130 km length. The existing bridge (Bridge No.38/3) across the river was constructed around 1936 and has not been rehabilitated for years. 

Recognising the vital rehabilitation work required for the said bridge, Road Development Authority initiated a project together with the financials aids from the Government of Austria together with Bilfinger MCE GmbH of Austria and Access Engineering PLC with the objective of widening the bridge with four traffic lanes replacing the existing steel bridge that causes severe traffic congestion and difficulties for safe pedestrians’ movements.

The scope of the project is to construct a pre-fabricated steel bridge 150m long 3 span bridge with spans of 30m, 45m and 30m. The proposed bridge is 19m wide and has two separate carriageways. Each abutment of the bridge comprises of 11 No. of bored piles and each pier comprises 10 No. of bored piles. The deck of the bridge is built out of reinforced concrete with asphalt paving on the top. All the piles are of 1.2m diameter and around 21 m in depth. The approximate lengths of approach roads to be built newly will be 140m towards Negombo and 110m towards Chilaw. The approach roads will be constructed with retaining walls on either side, drainage, lighting and pedestrian foot-walks. 

“With the commencement of incremental launching of the superstructure, the project is reaching 75% of its level of completion. As the project is progressing in the middle of a highly congested urbanity, whilst either ends of the bridge belong to two separate provinces, steering the construction work with minimum disturbance to the traffic movement and the surrounding is highly challenging. Yet we are looking forward to a fruitful completion of the project very soon and we believe this development will create ripple benefits to the surrounding communities,” said W.R.P. Chandimal Kumara; Project Manager of the construction of Kochchikade Bridge Project.