Barely a month after Greater Chennai Corporation fixed potholes at Duraisamy subway in T Nagar, motorists are struggling to navigate the stretch as it is riddled with craters and potholes. This is leading to unending traffic snarls.
It takes at least 10 minutes for motorists to cross a 150-metre stretch from Brindavan Street junction to T Nagar as about 20 metres of the subway has potholes. During weekends, it gets worse as shoppers headed to Ranganathan Street and GN Chetty Road congregate here.
TOI on Monday afternoon observed that it takes about one minute for a batch of 20 vehicles to cross this pot-holed part of the subway. This leads to a pile-up as at least a thousand vehicles cross this stretch every hour.
GCC had relaid the stretch using bituminous macadam instead of bituminous concrete last month. Subways tend to get inundated for a longer period during rain, and this loosens the bitumen. Concrete, on the other hand, lasts longer, but for concrete to settle completely, officials said they need diversion approvals from traffic police.
“We will fix the potholes again. Concrete roads need a longer time to dry, for which we have to provide a diversion plan. It is not feasible to close the road entirely. We will patch up one stretch at a time,” said zone 10 officer V Periyasamy.
GCC now plans to initially grout the walls using polyurethane chemical to arrest seepage. “Police have given us permission to work from 12 night to 5 am. During the summer season, concrete dries faster. We will fix the road using concrete soon after levelling it,” said GCC executive engineer Iniyan.