The old truss bridge over the Lokaha Khola on the East-West Highway in eastern Nawalparasi (Nawalpur) is expected to be back in operation in about two weeks, the Road Division Office Bharatpur has said. A problem was detected in the bridge's slab, and repair work is currently under way at the site. Until the repairs are completed, vehicles crossing the river are being operated through the new bridge that stands alongside the old span, an arrangement that keeps traffic flowing on one of Nepal's most important highway corridors while the aging structure is restored.

Two Weeks to Restore the Crossing

According to the Road Division Office Bharatpur, the authority responsible for maintaining this stretch of the highway, the old truss bridge over the Lokaha Khola will take approximately two weeks to return to operation. The decision to carry out repairs followed the discovery of a problem in the bridge's slab, the deck surface on which vehicles travel. Slab damage is treated as a serious issue for any bridge because the slab directly bears the load of passing traffic, and continued use of a compromised deck can accelerate deterioration and raise safety concerns for motorists.

Repairs under way

Repair work at the site is currently in progress, the division office said. The two-week estimate suggests the office expects a contained repair job rather than a full-scale reconstruction. Truss bridges, which carry vehicles across rivers at many points along the East-West Highway, typically consist of a steel framework supporting a concrete deck, and slab repairs can generally be carried out without dismantling the underlying structure. Restoring the slab within a fortnight would allow the old bridge to rejoin the crossing once it is fit to carry vehicles again.

Traffic Rerouted Through the New Bridge

While the old bridge is out of service, all vehicles are being operated through the new bridge at the same crossing, according to the information shared by the Road Division Office. This means movement along the East-West Highway through Nawalpur is not being halted, and commuters as well as freight vehicles can continue their journeys, crossing the river on the newer span instead of the old one.

The presence of two bridges at the crossing has proven valuable at a moment like this. Along several river crossings on the East-West Highway, new bridges have been built parallel to the old ones so that one span can shoulder the traffic while the other undergoes maintenance. The Lokaha Khola crossing is following that pattern: with the old truss bridge undergoing slab repairs, the new bridge is carrying the flow of vehicles until the work is completed in about two weeks.

Why the Lokaha Khola Crossing Matters

The Lokaha Khola lies on the East-West Highway in the Nawalpur area of eastern Nawalparasi, a district on the southern plains of Nepal. The East-West Highway, also known as the Mahendra Highway, is the country's principal east-west arterial road, linking the eastern and western Terai and carrying a heavy mix of long-distance passenger buses, freight trucks and local traffic. Any restriction at a river crossing along this route can affect travel and the movement of goods across a wide stretch of the plains, which is why the repair timeline announced for the old bridge is significant for regular users of the road.

Truss bridges are a familiar feature of the older infrastructure along Nepal's highway network, and keeping such spans serviceable rather than abandoning them gives the road network a useful layer of redundancy. As the current situation at the Lokaha Khola shows, when one bridge at a crossing is taken out of service for repairs, the parallel structure can absorb the traffic, ensuring that a technical fault on a single bridge does not translate into a full disruption of the highway.

Key Points at a Glance

  • The old truss bridge over the Lokaha Khola on the East-West Highway in eastern Nawalparasi (Nawalpur) will take about two weeks to return to operation.
  • A problem was found in the bridge's slab, and repair work is currently under way.
  • The Road Division Office Bharatpur is the authority that provided the repair details and the timeline.
  • Until the repairs are completed, vehicles are being operated through the new bridge at the same crossing.

The Road Ahead

For the next two weeks, the new bridge at the Lokaha Khola crossing will carry the traffic on the East-West Highway through Nawalpur. Once the slab repairs are finished, the old truss bridge is expected to resume operation, in line with the timeline indicated by the Road Division Office Bharatpur. The development was reported by RatoPati, which noted that vehicles can operate from the new bridge while the old structure is being repaired.