Howrah Bridge and Second Hooghly Bridge: A Comprehensive Comparative Study

The Howrah Bridge and Second Hooghly Bridge has been serving the city of Kolkata in conjunction with each other by allowing the city to be well connected with the rest of the state and indeed the rest of the country. The bridges by themselves, the former being of balancedcantilever form and the latter being cable-stayed, are marvels of bridge engineering with each being built in very different eras with tremendous variation in the technology that had been employed, all to serve the one purpose of improving communication and traffic conditions by releasing some of the volume exerted on each due to daily movement. The main issue of this research is to make a comparative review of the two bridges, mainly from strict technical points of views and also from the social and economic factors that arise out of them. The structural configurations, foundation characteristics, construction techniques and maintenance issues have been extensively discussed. Relevant statistical facts relating to traffic volume on the bridges and illustrations have been provided as and when required to verify some of the facts that has been discussed.