NHAI’s repair programme on the 675-metre old Cauvery bridge on NH-38 has advanced from roughly 30% earlier this month, but significant structural and finishing work remains. The latest reported mid-October completion target also pushes the public timeline beyond the September reopening expectation associated with the original three-month closure.
TIRUCHI — Repair work on the old Cauvery bridge carrying the Chennai-side NH-38 corridor at Tiruchi has crossed a significant construction milestone, with 60 of the structure’s 120 bearings now reported to have been replaced as NHAI accelerates work under a two-shift programme.
The update is materially different from the position reported on August 11, when only 40 bearings had been changed and NHAI-linked sources put overall work at around 30%. The latest reporting says the maintenance programme has now crossed the halfway point.
But the percentage requires qualification.
Replacing 60 bearings does not make half of the bridge operationally ready. Bearing replacement is only one component of an intervention that also covers 16 strip-seal expansion joints, structural or pier-related strengthening, pedestrian-side repairs and associated surface work. Completion of those activities—and engineering acceptance of the repaired structure—will determine when normal traffic can actually return.
An ageing bridge undergoing substantive maintenance
The bridge was built in 1963 and stretches about 675 metres across the Cauvery. It forms part of the Padalur–Tiruchi section of present-day NH-38, formerly numbered NH-45. Government documents confirm the corridor classification and NHAI’s continuing O&M responsibility for the highway section.
Major maintenance was last undertaken in 2010.
Before the current closure, an IIT Madras technical team inspected the structure. Reporting on the recommendations said the bridge required replacement of all 120 bearings and repairs or replacement involving 16 strip-seal expansion joints. NHAI closed the bridge on June 25 so the works could proceed.
The intervention has been estimated at around ₹10 crore. That figure should be treated as a project or repair estimate: Urban Acres has not identified a current expenditure statement showing the amount actually paid to date.
From 40 bearings to 60
The latest progress represents a clear acceleration.
On August 11, 40 bearings had been replaced. About 75 workers were reportedly being deployed daily, including a dedicated night-working team, while patch repairs and pedestrian-side strengthening were proceeding concurrently.
The current figure of 60 means another 20 bearings have been reported as completed since that update.
Latest reporting says the remaining 60 bearings are expected to be addressed rapidly, with expansion-joint work continuing as the programme advances. Work is being conducted in two shifts in an attempt to restore the corridor before heavier festival-period traffic.
The relatively low flow in the Cauvery has also provided an advantageous construction window for work below the bridge, although project teams have reportedly prepared for the possibility of increased river flows.
September or October?
The more important accountability issue is now the completion calendar.
When NHAI closed the bridge on June 25, officials described the maintenance window as three months. That placed the expected completion around late September.
As recently as August 11, reporting indicated that NHAI was attempting to reopen it the following month.
The newest progress account instead cites mid-October as the overall completion target.
That does not establish a contractual delay because Urban Acres has not obtained the underlying work order, contractual completion date or a formal revised programme. It does, however, mean the publicly communicated reopening horizon is no longer consistent across successive updates.
NHAI should therefore publish one authoritative date, along with the work items controlling it.
Closure has exposed the value of road-network redundancy
The maintenance programme is not confined to the bridge itself in its consequences.
Before the closure, the old bridge carried one direction of highway traffic while the adjacent bridge handled the other. Closing one structure required the remaining crossing to accommodate bidirectional movement. Reports immediately after June 25 documented long queues and congestion spilling into surrounding Tiruchi roads.
Recent community accounts have continued to complain of substantial delays around the corridor, although Urban Acres has not independently validated the specific travel times cited by individual road users.
This makes reopening a service-delivery question rather than simply an engineering-completion announcement.
The relevant outcome is:
Can the repaired bridge safely restore normal directional capacity and remove the abnormal bottleneck created by the closure?
Keep this project separate from Tiruchi’s other Cauvery bridge works
The nomenclature is particularly important in Tiruchi because another major Cauvery crossing is simultaneously under development.
The Tamil Nadu Highways Department is constructing a separate four-lane bridge, estimated at ₹106 crore, near the existing Melachinthamani–Mambazha Salai crossing. That State project is not the NHAI maintenance work discussed here.
Combining the two would mix different assets, budgets, agencies and project stages.
Reopening should be the next measurable milestone
A credible completion announcement should disclose more than an overall percentage.
At minimum, NHAI should state how many bearings remain, how many expansion joints have been completed, whether pier and pedestrian works have passed inspection, the revised contractual programme, any outstanding road-surface work and the engineering process through which the structure will be cleared for normal traffic.
Only then can the maintenance story move from physical progress to restored service.
