News
Concrete elevated highway from Kelanitissa to Galle Face
The US$ 300 million proposed elevated highway aimed at easing traffic congestion in Colombo city will get underway in December this year, with the money coming from the Asian Development Bank (ADB) as a loan, officials said.
Bids have already been closed for the 5.3 km project from Kelanitissa power station junction via the Colombo Port premises to Galle Face (Chaithiya Road and Galle Face Roundabout) and Fort, Road Development Authority (RDA) engineer Nihal Sooriyaarachchi said.
Five Chinese Companies and a South Korean company had submitted bids for the project with the contract due to be awarded in December and the project scheduled to be completed in three years, he said. Preliminary work for site clearance is already underway.
Mr. Sooriyaarachchi said the elevated highway consisting of four lanes would also be linked to the Katunayake Expressway, enabling traffic to move into the city without a hindrance. Project Director and Engineer Mohamed Nizar said the structure would be on concrete pillars and they would not use iron to avoid corrosion.
Mr Nizar said that under the project they would have to construct a 17-storey building and a workshop for the Ports Authority as it would be losing some of the buildings due to the project. He said even containers trucks could ply on this highway. The highway would be maintained by the company for five years while there would be an eight-year grace period to begin the repayment of the loan.