Vijayawada, June 06: Former professor at IIT Kanpur and vice-president of the Geosynthetic Society of India Prof MR Madhav today inspected the cracks on the retaining wall of the Sri Kanaka Durga temple ghat road here.
Though the temple authorities have allayed the fears of devotees, they brought in the civil engineering expert to seek his suggestions for strengthening the wall. It may be recalled that a detailed report was published in these columns on Thursday on the cracks in the newly-constructed retaining wall.
After a thorough hour-long inspection of the cracks and the sinking of the newly-laid section of the road, Prof. Madhav gave detailed suggestions to the engineering staff.
He asked them to prevent reverse flow of rainwater to avert seepage into the cracks and suggested that apoxic rexin be used to fill the gaps.
Later, speaking to newsmen, he said the cracks were due to a soil stabilisation problem.
Allaying the fears of the people over the safety of the retaining wall, he said he had asked the engineering staff to build an extra wall or put up a mesh wherever necessary over the cracks.
PRAISES TEMPLE AUTHORITIES: The civil engineering expert praised the temple authorities for providing 1200 square metres of extra space at a height of 150 metres beside the ghat road by filling the gap with gravel from the foothill.
Noting that thus making additional space on a hill is no ordinary feat, he described it as an “engineering wonder” and advised mediapersons to highlight the positive aspects.
Temple executive officer N Vijayakumar and executive engineer P Murali Balakrishna accompanied the IIT professor.
–Agencies