Planning and manage ment for Expe ditious Construction of ROB’s

S.K. Singla*
Mahabal Pras ad**
Ajay Kum ar***

Fast track im plementation of the project is the need of time and could not be disputed.
Expeditious construction is a major and key com ponent of any project managem ent as it
causes accrual of intended benefitsalong with financial returns at the earlies t .Fas t track
construction of ROB’s requires special attention as it leads to s afety of rail &road us ers ,
m itig ate inconvenience to roadusers improves train operations / uninterrupted running of
train’s , better maintenance of track along with m any other tangible benefits like cutting
down of idling fuel cos t vis -a vis environm ental hazards, journey tim e, traffic jams , in
electrified section hass le free pass age of ODC consignm ents etc.

In recent pas t due to fas t expans ion of towns & cities increas e in number of trains &
vehicles , increase in trains speed, laying of multiple tracks & cons truction of multiple
lane highways / expressways have caus ed huge dem and for cons truction of grade
repeaters i.e. ROB’s and RUB’s .

For expeditious cons truction we have to s egregate the pre-cons truction activities and
construction s tage activities .

Major pre-construction stage activ itie s are :-

• Preparation & approval of GAD
• Land acquisition.
• Geotechnical inves tigation.
• Preparation of abs tract es tim ate.
• preparation of s tructural drawings
• Preparation of detail es tim ate
• Tendering.

Construction stageactivities are :-

• Shifting of utilities
• Cons truction of s ub-s tructure
• Cons truction of Super-s tructure.

*CAO/C/SECR/BSP **DY. CE/D&D/BSP ***AXEN/C/Des ign/BSP

 st
Preparation& approval of GAD s hould be the 1 s tep and process of preparation of GAD
s hould s tart as soon as any level crossing qualifies for construction of grade
separator .Preparation and approval of GAD’s s hould be one of the important items of
s
CBE’ agenda for dis cussion during state-co-ordination meeting. Effort s hould be m ade
to have approved GAD at the tim e of process ing of ROB work in works programm e. In
m ajority of the cas es preparation and approval of GAD is taken up after inclusion of
work in works programme. This caus es avoidable delay of 6-12 months or even m ore.

The major problem in deciding type of foundation ( i.e. Open or Pile) is non-availability
of geotechnical report. For this purpose it is suggested that each division should have
a running contact for geotechnical investigation and survey on s imilar lines as
works zonal and Geotechnical data s hall be included in GAD along with tentative
foundation arrangem ent. As per railway board’s letter No: 2014/CE-
IV/ROB/250(Es tt.Des ign) Dated: 05.09.2014, construction of pile foundation for ROBs
s hall be avoided.

Abstract cos t of the work s hould be as accurate as detailed es timate cos t. Though it will
not have as many numbers of items as in detailed es tim ate, yet it can be made to that
accuracy provided type of foundation is known at the time of preparation of abs tract
es timate and railways have modular cos t of major components of ROB.An accurate
assessm ent of abs tract cos t will obviate the necessity of s ending of detail es tim ate to
Railw ay board for sanction and avoid delay of at last one working s eas on.

Since span,carriageway width,height above rail level arealm os t fixed , railway m ay work
out modular cos t (Major cos t component ) for foundation , s ub s tructure, bearings , s teel
Girder/RCC Girder, deck s lab &bearing coat .These major cost head m aybe broken
down at detail es tim ate stage or detail es tim ate & tendering may be done on major cos t
heads its elf. This will m inim izethe effort on billing s tage as hardly any measurem entis to
be done as paym ent can be linked with s tage of cons truction. Practically, s tage
payment leads to fas ter construction as contactor knows item rate paym ent is not
possible and payment will be made only after com pletion of certain s tage. This works as
a catalys t towards fas ter cons truction.

S.No. Item Description Nos. Rate Amount

1 Up to Foundation Level 4 1702340 6809360
2 Pier 4 1321240 5284960
3 Bed Block 4 664631 2658525
4 Span (only Girders) 3 9511200 28533600
5 Bearing 3 750000 2250000
6 Superstructure 3 10073925 30221775
7 Total in Rs . 75758220
RDSO has already s tandardized the drawing of super structural along with bearing.
Since height above rail level is fixed and mos t of the ROB’s are for two
lanes carriageway, it s hall be poss ible to standardize the s tructural drawing of sub-
s tructure and foundation also. Authors has prepared s tandard drawing for RCC girders
in lieu of steel girders for 18M& 24M spans .It can be s een that weight of individual RCC
girders for 18 M & 24 M are 22.28 MT & 35.93 MTres pectively. Thes e girders could be
launched as eas ily as steel girders but provide econom y and eas e of cons truction at
s ite.Since s teel girders are to be fabricated by RDSO approved firms , contractor has to
tie-up with RDSO approved firmswhich m any tim e leads to delay. Therefore for small
s pans up to 24.0M RCC girders m ay be preferred over s teel girders . Com parative cos t
analysis has been doneas detailed in following table .Availability of s tandard s ub -
s tructure and foundation drawing will cut down tim e for preparatio n of s tructural
drawings and tender can be invited as s oon as detailed estim ate in sanctioned.

DRAWINGS OF 18.00 M SP AN ROB(RCC)

DRAWINGS OF 24.00 M SP ANROB(RCC)
 Compar ison betw een 18-M RCC Vs Steel Concrete Composite Girder
Item description RCC Steel
Weight of 01 girder (in MT) 22 13
Height from girder soffit to top of 1400 1404
deck slab (mm)
R/F in 01 RCC girder( in MT) 2.2744 -
Concrete cost of 01 span (07 495729.86 -
girders)
R/F cost of 01 span (07 girders) 1034852 -
Cost of Structural steel (5 Girder) - 65000000
Launching cost of 01 span 3119760 1300000
Total cost of 01 span 4650341.8 7800000
Saving in RCC girder over Steel 3149658.2
girder (in Rs) 40.38%
Saving for 03 spans ROB (in Rs) 9448974.5
 Compar ison betw een 24-M RCC Vs Steel Concrete Composite Girder
Item description RCC Steel
Weight of 01 girder (in MT) 36 20
Height from girder soffit to top of 1600 1814
deck slab (mm)
R/F in 01 RCC girder( in MT) 4.4637283 -
Concrete cost of 01 span (07 799379.42 -
girders)
R/F cost of 01 span (07 girders) 2030996.4 -

Cost of Structural steel (5 Girder) - 10000000

Launching cost of 01 span 5030707.5 2000000

Total cost of 01 span 7861083.3 12000000

Saving in RCC girder over Steel 4138916.7

girder (in Rs) 34.49%
Saving for 03 spans ROB (in Rs) 12416750

As we know tender s chedule s hould be prepared with utm ostcare. This will obviate
introduction of N.S items, preparation & s anction of variation causing frequent dis ruption
of work .However, this will depend upon accuracy and proper ass essment of quantities
from s tructural drawings. Since s tandarddrawings for s uper s tructure are available and
as dis cussed earlier, drawings for foundatio n and s ub structure can be s tandardized
therefore, s tandard tender s chedule with fixed items can be m ade. Quantity and
ratesare only needs to be ass essed and incorporated into tenders chedule. This will
s ave time while tendering.

As s oon as work appears in pink book joint s urvey with S&T, electrical and s tate
government should be done. Utilities like S&T & electric cable, electrical mas t,
(electrical general &OHE ), water pipe line, encroachm ent if any s hould be noted and
intimated to concernedauthorities . Sim ilarly, layout of di vers ion road and schem e of
traffic m anagement should be inclu ded in GAD. This will ens ure availability of
encum brance free site before finalization of tender. This will help in fas t and smooth
execution and avoidlitigation.
For quick finalization of tender’s departm ental rates to be updated duly cons idering
s pecial s ite condition if any.Ma y time finali zation of tenders take long tim e? This is
m ostly due to non-updating of rates, non cons ideration of s pecial site conditions in
departm ental rates .
Cons truction of sub-s tructure shall be planned in such a way so that sub-s tructure and
girders are ready sim ultaneously. In cas e of pile foundation, pile foundation with large
diameter piles in com passion to small diameter piles shall be preferred as tim e of
boning & concreting for 1.0 m &1.2m diam eter piles is almos t sam e but num ber of piles
in cas e of large diam eter pile gets reduced and thus tim e of construction of foundation is
cut down.

In cas e of pile foundation s tatic pile load test requires quite elaborate arranged and tim e
taking. Therefore collection of materials equipments s hall be s tarted as s oon as boring
of tes t pile is s tarted. Hydraulic jacks , girders , dial-gauges , loading platform s hall be
brought at s ite as s oon as boring of tes t pile starts .

Concrete mix des igns hall be available with at leas t two approved cem ent brands to
cater for non availability of one particular brand in market.Requirement of m aterial
&machinery s hould be fore-casted well in advance and their availability at s ite shall be
ensured at las t 15 days ahead of their actual date of utilization.

Wall type piers shall be preferred in comparison topier with multiple numbers of circular
colum ns as total number of lifts in wall type pier will be less . If more than one columns
are required for one pier, wall pier will cut down the tim e of cons truction of s ub-s tructure
as tim e for one lift is s am e.Not only that, cons truction of bed block with circular pier is
m ore tedious and tim e taking but s ame for wall type of pier is quite sim ple and fas t.

Launching s cheme s hould be s tandardized for electrified and non-electrified territory.

Based on the requirem ent of crane capacity, requirem ent of number of cranes etc s hall
be worked out and s pecified in the tender document. This will save lot of time in critical
s tage in arranging requisite capacity cranes . Norm ally launching s cheme should be
s uch s o that cranes with requisite capacity are eas ily available. This is of paramount
importance in case of electrified territory where traffic cum power block requirement is a
m ajor factor and s ome tim e we work out launching s chemes with very huge capacity
cranes which are locally not available and their arrangement takes months . Depending
upon s ite conditions different launching s chem esare possible. But, whatever may be the
launching scheme and traffic block requirement,it shall be finalized well in advance and
frozen.

Super s tructure is generally cons tructed as per s tandard RDSO’s s tandard drawings . In
revised RDSO drawing Bo grade of s teel conforming to IS- 2062 has been s pecified,
which was not the case in earlier RDSO’s s tandarddrawings .InfactIRC- 24 does not
s pecify any s uch grade of steel for road bridges .Normally requirement of different
s ections of s teel for ROBs in railway portion is quite small and such small quantities of
Bo grade steel is not m ade available by reputed manufacturers li ke SAIL etc. Use of A
or “BR” grades steel requires approved of CAO/CBE. This caus e lot of delay as it is
difficult and time consum ing to collect the non – availability certificate from different
m anufactures . Therefore it is s ugges ted that either requirem ents of “Bo” steel from
RDSO’s standard drawin gsm ay be rem oved for time being or this is dis pensed with at
the s tage of tendering with the approval ofCAO/PCE. Technically s peaking for ROB’s ,
Bo steel is not required as ratio of live load to dead load s tress es is quite less .
Conclusion: Most of the delays can be arrested by proper planning, co-ordination
with state government,accurate assessment of quantities, incorporating
approved launching scheme and traffic block requirement in tender document.