GUWAHATI, Dec 28 - The NF Railway (NFR) has replaced 336 structural steel members called stringers of the Saraighat bridge in eight and a half months, ahead of the target date, claimed an NFR press release today.
Stringers are steel beams positioned along the length of the bridge on which the rails of the track are directly placed. The load from a passing train is first transferred to the stringers and from there it is passed on to other members of the bridge.
Between March and June 17 this year, only 14 new and 19 strengthened rail stringers could be replaced on the bridge due to non-availability of traffic block. However, later regular scheduled traffic block for an hour and 45 minutes on every Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday was allotted. This resulted in an increase in the pace of replacement of stringers from two to six per block. Accordingly the total work involving 336 stringers was completed by November 15 this year as against the target date of December 31, the press release claimed.
