Hello Everyone, If you haven't experienced or haven't heard about this, there was a horrible traffic pile up on Wednesday morning on ORR underpass near the Cisco Offices and Prestige Tech Park. Because of the huge rain on Tuesday night, water accumulated at the bottom of the underpass and literally the water was a couple of inches short of knee deep. Two wheelers couldn't use the underpass and all the four whellers and big vehicles had to go on a single file at a snail's pace to get out of the jam.
Guess why the accumulation of water? Some genius forgot about the water (rain or otherwise) drains at the bottom of the underpass. I am not sure if it an engineering impossibility to put the drains there to drain water from that low lying area, but why construct underpasses when you know there are going to be problems?
There are so many articles (in Hindu) on the poor quality of construction of underpasses in Bangalore recently, it is not even funny.
It noramally takes about 45 minutes to reach E.City from Marathalli. On Wednesday, it took me more than 2 hours.
Needless to say, I am dreading the monsoon season.
-Pavan
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All underpasses will suffer
All underpasses will suffer this fate. Beyond the water the new flyovers & underpasses being built on the ring road near Nagawara dont have enough banking forcing you to slow down. This is just bad engineering. The new underpass had a sigboard reading 30KMPH this is on a road being built for 80kmph. What a sorry state of affairs.
To add to the woes a new temple is coming bit by bit on a 2 feet median gap near the bhdrappa layout intersection. It started with a hanuman photo, then came a leaf shelter, then the photo was replaced with a painted hanuman on a chappadi milestone marker.BDA is sleeping on the job
ORR Underpass
Incidentally this was noticed by a Skyscraper city user and posted there, in February itself. What was noticed by a layman is beyond BDA... Really shameless.
http://www.skyscrapercity.com/showpo...postcount=1679
What stormwater drain
Storm water drains on ORR are (a) Full of garbage (b) Discrete channels not really connected to any final sink. This whole business is a tragedy.
could be minor problem
The unregulated leveling of land makes the drains useless. When no regulation is there development is fast, but leads to blocks later. But despite these fundamental problems, the underpasses at Rammurthynagar, Banswadi seems to be working properly, so may be this is not too big issue and could be solved with some minor changes. They cant do such big mistake. They already have experience in designing and building underpasses.
Oh yes they can..
@abidpqa Don't be so sure that they can't make this big a mistake.. :)
Our geniuses are absolutely capable of screwing up the easiest of the jobs. I drive through this monument twice a day. I am positive there are no drains now..
My point is not if they can fix it or not. Where is the thought process when you are designing the damn thing in the first place?
@Sanjayv is absolutely correct. ORR is one of the better and wider roads in this city. There is absolutely no maintenance of that road. You don't see the drains through out the road. (I live in Marathalli - So, from Marathalli to Sarjapur Road) They are always in pockets and are almost always filled with plastic cups and what not. If and when they clean it and dump the waste on the road, the truck which takes it away is atleast two to five days late and the garbage comes back and settles into the drains.
Some times (when I am really frustrated with all this nonsense) I feel we are all living in a garbage dump.. :(
-Pavan
Picture proof of the mess
This is the traffic block near the u-turn at doddenakundi, because of the waterlogged underpass.. Should have taken photos at the underpass as well.. But, I was in the middle of a crowded bus!
It took more than 2 hours to reach ITPL from Sarjapur Signal on that day.
Unlike most comments posted, there is a storm water drain in and around the underpass. But, it was blocked comepletely.. Most probably by construction debris!
What I found interesting was, at 7.50am, when the block started from around bangalore central, almost everyone in the volvo I was travelling, guessed that the reason for the block is th underpass being waterlogged. But, the genious who built the underpass did not think about it!
I remember similar issues used to happen at the underpass at doddenakundi, and someone has brought it under control! So, we have faced the same problem, a few kilometers from this spot, and also know how to solve it... But, when it happens in a new location, the learning cycle starts from the scratch!!
providing alibi's - the bigger problem
They cant do such big mistake. They already have experience in designing and building underpasses.
Can't they? So, what would you say about the Cauvery theater junction master-piece (check here), and the even earlier Richmond road fly-over?
It's when people are so forthcoming to provide alibi's for such shoddy work that they get perpetuated repeatedly. Perhaps, that's where the problem lies in the first place.
One more rain and more issues On ORR
So, at around 4pm, it looked like its going to rain today. Everyone in the office who live in this vicinity packed up and left the office, fearing another long drive home. Poor me started at 7pm, thinking it wouldn't be THAT bad..
Today, by the time I crossed the underpass at around 8:30pm, it was clear, but the problems while coming down the bridges was painful to watch. As usual, our idiots forgot about the rain water drains near the ramp ups and downs. So, because of the rain water, people who were waiting for the buses were waiting for them in the first of the three lanes and with this, it literally became a single file again.
Seriously, I want to know where their brains are. I am sure they are not where they should be..
-Pavan
Atleast the underpass was not
Atleast the underpass was not waterlogged yesterday.. so, maybe it really was a few blocked drains.. Someone had the sense to clear it after the first heavy rain!
People waiting for buses - maybe they will notice it now.. Now that the first major problem is solved to some extend...
Wish the days when we would anticipate such problems, and take proactive measure before it occurs would come soon!!
Where the brains are
Reg; Pavan's comment. Obviously not where they are supposed to be - certainly not the best of them. Even those who have them in the right place, are overshadowed and overpowered by a system that systematically destroys them.
That is why it is so important that civil society which is out of the system keeps pushing and pressing for sensible solutions. Vigilance and proactiveness are the keys that could keep the balance.
ORR Underpass
Today, there was a traffic block at the same spot (longer than the usual 5-10 minutes).. Not caused by rains.. Am not sure what the cause was, since when we finally passed the underpass, everything seemed normal!
One of the general causes of traffic block here :
There are two lanes for traffic going from Sarjapur Signal to Marathahalli
- One through the underpass, which can be used by both heavy vehicles, and light vehicles, and is to the right
- One on the road level - to be used by the light vehicles only (rather narrow lane, with the pit for the second underpass quite close!) - to the left of the above mentioned lane
Buses and other heavy vehicles, take the left most lane on appproaching the underpass, since somehow, the left most ones seems ot be entering the underpass faster than the ones which come on the right lanes (Again, not sure why this happens.. wonder if there are any gutters on the entrance to the underpass!). And other vehicles which are forced to take the right lane in approaching the underpass has to move to the left, if they should take the lane which is used only by LMV.
This leads to criscrossing of the vehicles just before entering the underpass!! And obviously, traffic blocks follow..
This might be one example of where we are all selfish for our on good, and forget the common good, which in turn might be good for us as well.. It does not make sense for one bus to move to the right lane earlier on.. But it make immense sense, if everyone would do that..
Question is, given the scenario, is there a way of enforcing it? Maybe separating out a narrow left most lane, for allowing only LMV, from a 20m (too much?) before the underpass, so that traffic at the underpass is streamlined, and the crisscrossing can be avoided?
I guess this makes more sense because at this location, we have some 3 lanes on ORR + the service lanes merging into this narrow lane+ one proper lane in the underpass. So, even if the separation affects the speed of traffic on approaching the underpass, it might be ok, since the bigger bottlenck is at the underpass.
I guess people who travel on this route might be able to understand what I am saying here, they would have observed it several times.. For others, sorry if I am not clear enough!
Agree with you Anithasunil
It is quite a crazy situation especially with the area between the underpasses being off limit to large vehicles. Few things that I feel will help are
1. Make the transition smoother - 3 lanes suddenly merge to a combination of underpass and between the underpass areas. Those coming from Devarabeesanahalli (Intel) on ORR should only have the option of taking the underpass. Reduce the lane width with barriers well in advance and ask all buses and HTVs to stay right -as Anithasunil auggested. Buses and HTVs stay left and force their way in creating chaos and dangerous situation at the neck.
2. Service road in front of the Salarpuria buildings should all only be for 2 wheelers and LMVs planning to go on top of the underpass in the narrow pile of soil. Generally, such vehicles should be ones that have to turn on top of the underpass to go to Panathur or Kariyamanna agrahara. The top of the underpass, at peak housrs is usually full of vehicles coming from Sarjapur side on the road behind CISCO, Intel etc.
3. U turn for vehicles coming from marathahalli towards DB Halli should be after New Horizon intersection in their direction of travel.
4. Similarly, U turn for vehicles coming from DB Halli towards Marathahalli should be after New Horizon intersection in their direction of travel.
5. Both these U-turns should be one way
6. Preferably, buses and large vehicles should do a U turn under the DBHalli flyover and not at these locations where they block the road.