Okay so my brother and a friend, who were on Jinnah Flyover aka Cavalry Ground Bridge a few cars apart, were just freaked out an hour or so ago! Today is the 11th of Jan and time was 1300hrs approx.

The traffic was crawling all the way up to the bridge ALLLL the way to the Cavalry Ground side of the bridge, probably due to the traffic jam at the Firdous Market Chowk. He was heading to Main Boulevard Gulberg from the Cavalry Ground side. My brothers’ friend calls him to ask if it is a quake since he is crawling at 5kmph on the bridge in the jam and the car is swaying. My brothers reply was that this aint a quake but the bridge itself. The intensity was such that my brother himself was ready to jump ship, abandon car and just get the hell off of the bridge some how. And then I get his freaked out call telling me about the experience

Could this be an impending disaster? I’m not sure what the loading limits are on that bridge and if it is designed to hold with the entire bridge loaded. I’m certain that it is SUPPOSED to be designed to support a full end to end load and a safety factor of maybe 3x or 4x?

On the Gulberg Industrial Area side of the bridge, on the road segment between the railway crossing and the Gurumangat Road, right next to one column of the bridge, WASA has dug the ground to lay a sewage line. Could it be that the excavation work carried out there has damaged the foundations?

I know that bridges sway and I have felt the sway on the same bridge myself, but nothing as much as to elicit a panic response from motorists on the bridge. But i have wondered about the possibilities and the conditions under which that can happen.

If you know some one in TEPA or LDA or NESPAK, you might want to forward this message and alert them to this and have them check out the bridge? They might also want to inform the public if something is out of whack! I I do hope that this doesn’t get brushed aside as a one off instance. Else there is the Media Walas to raise a hulla balloo.

Till then i am advising every one to skip the Jinnah Flyover and try alternate routes such as the Sherpao Bridge.

Map: http://maps.google.com/maps?oe=UTF-8&q=jinnah+flyover+lahore&ie=UTF8&hq=&hnear=Jinnah+Flyover,+Lahore,+Punjab,+Pakistan&ei=__dKS6XaFpCgkQWRxKn_Ag&ved=0CAgQ8gEwAA&ll=31.501727,74.358473&spn=0.010977,0.030899&z=16&iwloc=A