Meet woman, rock engineering professor from IISc who spent 17 yrs in building world's highest railway bridge that can handle earthquakes and…, her name is…
The Chenab Bridge inaugurated by Prime Minister Narendra Modi is truly an incredible piece of engineering. Standing at 359 metres above the riverbed, it is taller than the Eiffel Tower and built to handle some of the toughest weather and ground conditions in the world. The project cost around Rs. 1,486 crore, took years of planning and hard work.
A big part of this success goes to Dr. G. Madhavi Latha, a professor and expert in rock engineering from the Indian Institute of Science (IISc), who spent 17 years working on this challenging project. Dr. Latha was brought in by Northern Railways and Afcons Infrastructure, the company building the bridge, for her knowledge in dealing with dangerous mountain slopes and tricky ground conditions.
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The bridge crosses a deep valley in the Himalayan mountains, an area known for earthquakes and tough terrain. Dr. Latha's role was to guide how to stabilize the rocky slopes and build a strong foundation that could last for generations.
Thanks to her expert advice, the Chenab Bridge is now the world's highest railway bridge.
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How Dr. Madhavi Latha helped build the World's Highest Railway Bridge
Dr. Madhavi Latha's main job was to guide the design of the bridge's foundation and help make the steep mountain slopes safe for construction.
Building the bridge's massive arch supports and tall pillars on rocky, uneven slopes was very difficult. When digging began, engineers came across unexpected problems like cracked rocks, empty spaces, and weak patches that were not noticed during earlier checks.
To handle these shortcomings, Dr. Latha and her team followed a 'design-as-you-go' approach. This meant they adjusted the plans in real-time, based on the actual ground conditions they found. They used special methods like:
Cement grouting: Injecting cement into cracks in the rocks to make them stronger.
Rock anchors: Long rods fixed deep into the rocks to hold everything in place.
The team used tens of thousands of metres of rock anchors to make sure the bridge could handle strong winds and earthquakes.
Dr. Latha's work began in 2005 and continued all the way through trial runs in 2022. The Chenab Bridge is not only the highest railway bridge in the world but is also built to last over 120 years, even in one of the toughest environments on Earth.
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