Rajiv Gandhi Sealink-Mumbai, India

Rajiv Gandhi Sealink in Mumbai, India, is an eight-lane, 4,7 km long offshore road bridge, West of the Mumbai Peninsula, which provides an alternative connection across the Mahim Bay between the districts of Bandra in the North and Worli in the South. To create a landmark structure, a symmetrical cable stayed bridge with a single pylon was chosen to bridge the two 250 m wide navigation spans. This project forms first phase of the Western Freeway sealink project in Mumbai, which will be, once completed, an offshore bypass all the way down to Nariman Point at the Southern tip of the Mumbai peninsula. The southbound carriageway was opened to traffic in July 2009, followed by the northbound carriageway in March 2010. This paper focuses on the design and construction aspects of the offshore bridge, whose deck is almost entirely made up of pre-cast box-girder segments. The construction faced many challenges mainly due to late design changes and the annual monsoon seasons. Because of rough sea conditions prevailing at this location, construction over water had to be stopped every year during the four-and-half-month long monsoon season.