What exactly would be "precast RCC box segments of size 6m x 4.5m x 1m". Magic box, isn't it? Saw some tenders from BBMP calling for work to prepare "vehicular underpass" using these precast RCC segments at Mysore Road Deviation Junction. See the BBMP Ad for yourself:
On BBMP Website, find another one for Vehicular underpass from Kalidasa road to Sheshadri road. In here , the magic boxes are of "RCC Precast box segments of 7.00mx3.50mx1.0m. Notice different dimensions her.
Details here - Vehicular underpass from Kalidasa road to Sheshadri road.
So where exactly are these spots on Mysore Road and Seshadri Road? And whats the traffic flow planned around these new underpasses?
PS: Photo used above is an old one from Photoyogi. Image of the tender is a newspaper scan. BTW, none of these tenders/ads are there on BBMP's e-tendering website (click here and then find a link called "free tender view"). Perhaps they don't put up "Short Term Tenders" on these online systems. BBMP Dear, please give us a simple way of watching all your work (RSS feed or something). Can't be watching tenderwizard, your website, as well as the newspaper corners.
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Dimensions
6.5 m width, 4.5 m height, 1m depth. I know they are building one of these illusions across Seshadri Road near Maharani's College to allow Palace Road traffic to flow uninterrupted to the next big jam at Basaveshwara Circle and for Seshadri Road traffic to pile up at KR Circle.
Srivathsa
Drive safe. It is not just the car maker which can recall its product.
The Illusion of Speedy Travel with 'Magic' Boxes
'Magic' Box on Mysore road is probably being fitted at the deviation on to Ring road (earlier, a steel portable flyover had been planned there), or it could be deviation to Chord road, I guess. The height is larger, maybe to permit taller goods vehicles to pass.
As Srivathsa mentioned, these just provide the driver an illusion of speedy travel. In reality, the pile ups get moved further & get worse as too many vehicles will collect at the next intersection. This is a poor attempt to temper the drivers' mind & try to reduce cases of criticism & road rage. It can also be dangerous to pedestrians & other law abiding road users as there are many rash, irresponsible drivers who will try to drive too fast & end up causing havoc on the streets.
I wonder why the authorities are not using these for society's best interests, which is to use them exclusively for public transport buses. The degree to which the administration is willing to bend over to please vehicle owners is quite unimaginable.
I noticed that private vehicles are being permitted on MG road, but not public buses. The Hop-On/Off buses should have been routed through MG road, but they have been planned on Cubbon road since buses are now banned on MG rd with the ongoing Metro works. Many potential commuters that would have used these services for access to MG rd have thus, been ignored. This is another piece of evidence to suggest how poor the quality of administration is in the city. At least this new service should have been allowed access on MG road - it badly needs some good publicity, at start.
But these did work for Bellary Road?
When done with some long distance traffic plan in mind, like BBMP did for Bellary Road, these boxes did help, didn't they?
Are these new underpasses too part of some larger-distance traffic management plan - I am curious to know that.
Srivathsa, Naveen, possible to mark out the exact spots for these new magic box underpasses?
Silkboard, I don't think so..
1) A bottleneck at Mekhri circle. This is due to poor lane discipline.
2) Then you encounter a HUGE HUGE bottleneck all the way from Palace grounds to the BDA junction underpass. This happens because the 3-lane road narrows down to a 2-lane one. Traffic merges here, and results in a huge huge pileup. In addition, the entire bunch of vehicles coming from Malleswaram-Yeshwanthpur via sankey road joins this road, creating even more chaos.
3) Near Raj Bhavan, there is another gigantic traffic jam, and this happens because of a long long traffic pileup because of the Indian Express signal. This pileup is almost 750 meters long.
At the end of the day, have I benifited from these magic boxes, in terms of the amount of time it takes me to reach MG Road?
It didnt exactly solve the problem on Bellary road
The BDA office junction - the very first magic box is horribly designed. The BBMP has been re-laying the road over it every 2 months. The design is an eyesore, also it is too narrow and does not cater to future traffic needs.
The Cauvery theater junction underpass - 2nd magic box - slightly well though off - they re-tar the road every 3-4 months!!. The U-turn design is extremely bad - during peak hours, traffic piles up till the Windsor Manor bridge and moves at snail pace. It is too tough for buses to negotiate this sharp u turn.
The Ganganagar-CBI junction maggic box complex is yet to be fully completed. I dont see any miracle happening here - it will the same old story. Traffic moving out of Sanjaynagar into the city have to go through a narrow underpass - again it is too tough for buses to negotiate.
It is time BBMP reconsiders this magic box concept all together. The Ganganagar-CBI junction has been going for last 4-5 months and will take atleast another 3-4 months to be completed. With some better planning they could as well consider better designs (may be full fledged fly overs/underpasses) than these quick fix ones. Also these are more or less short term solutions - just postponing the eventual breakdown.
Mysore Road Plan
There is no arguing about need for some traffic management here. Imagine what happens when those large scale BDA planned communities (Kempegowda Layout etc) come up, and keep additing to the mess.
But there are at least four other plans I know of.
> Elevated road upto NICE peripheral road intersection (part of BMIC link-road plan)
> Gali Anjaneya Temple flyover road over drain and related flyovers (living in no man's land for quite a while now)
> ORR junction flyover (ongoing BDA Project)
> proposed metro related construction (not sure of the plans)
Where does this new underpass fit in this maze?
Ravi
Cauvery Junction
I was amused the other day when I crossed Cauvery junction and was made to stop to allow traffic to go straight through. The `U - turn' is basically a disaster and as a result there is a huge jam in the evenings between BDA junction and Cauvery. On the other had I find that it has greatly reduced the time it takes me to go from Malleswaram to MG. Road/Cantonement area. I suppose that as things stand its okay that they open up the straight road in the evening to reduce pressure on traffic going North, but I think that defeats the purpose of the underpass. I guess they could built another magic box over pass to help that !
All in all I think these magic box underpasses/overpasses actually work if they are planned properly. The issue is not with the materials or the technology, but with the planning. Perhaps its a scam from BBMP to create disasters with it so that they can go back to the multi crore long time underpasses which allow for more skimming by the contracters.
Ramesh
Magic Boxes - A Futile Exercise
SB - The location for the magic box on Seshadri rd has been circled in red on the map below. For Mysore rd, I am not sure if it is planned at ORR junction or at Chord rd junction (the E-W Metro will arrive from Chord rd & proceed along Mysore rd).
Rithesh - "Like a patch work on a dam about to burst" - I like this, for that's exactly what these Magic Boxes are.
On Bellary road, the emphasis has been on providing a "throughway" to & from the airport, even if inconveniencing all others. This may have seemed like a great solution to ward off the "airport connectivity" question raised at the time by many. The larger implications of fitting these magic boxes for all of the traffic had never been pondered over before putting them up.
The final result is that on a stretch between Hebbal flyover & Mekhri underpass, the going, though a bit of a roller-coaster ride, may seem great. The ordeal begins after the Mekhri underpass when the road suddenly narrows to 2 lanes from 3 lanes. This is further complicated by vehicles emerging from the cauvery underpass a little further & joining up with the rest, all headed towards the city center. In peak hours, the long lengths of vehicles may perhaps one day reach Mekhri underpass itself, if not further towards Hebbal flyover !! Beyond the Windsor Manor bridge, confusion prevails at the High grounds turn-off followed by the pile-up near Raj Bhavan.
These are just on the airport "throughway" route. There are many inconveniences for cross traffic as enumerated by Rithesh, Vinay & RS above.
Making facilities for quicker movement for "all traffic" instead of concentrating on building escapeways exclusively for buses will only add more vehicles as more people are encouraged to use cars everywhere. This is why you see the queues lengthening with each passing day.
As I have mentioned many times previously, if the focus is shifted to enable only buses to move faster, things will be much better controlled as people will automatically change over & use buses since use of private vehicles becomes difficult & time-consuming.
Thanks Naveen
Thanks for posting the spots. Marking them on gmap below as well.
The one being done on Sheshadri Road - are we missing something? all traffic is anyway going to pile up on the Palace Road signal?
Actually, after the ongoing widening work gets completed, Seshadri Road is likely to be made two-way. So Northbound traffic could potentially go signal free till the station (Dhanvantari Road).
BTW, I forgot to mention, but BBMP floated tenders for magic box based pedestrian underpasses as well.
Clarifications, please
Both the locations you have suggested on Mysore Road appear highly unlikely to me. The Chord Road junction already has the GA Temple flyover project coming up and once that is complete, both roads will be made one-ways on that stretch, resulting in seamless traffic flow at the junction. And a (conventional) flyover at the ORR junction is already proposed to be taken up by BDA. IMHO, the possible locations could be RR Nagar Arch or Jnanabharathi gate. Of course, if they are pedestrian subways, it's a different story...
@SB:
If Seshadri Road is proposed to be made two-way, what about the Anand Rao Circle flyover?
Regards,
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Manish, Nagarbhavi.
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Manish.
Magic Boxes
Manish,
You are right - it cannot be Chord Rd or ORR Jn since these have been referred to elsewhere. I am not sure about the Kalidasa rd magic box. This may be to do away with the T-intersection delay only & not to facilitate conversion to two-way traffic on Seshadri rd.