Balakot Naran
Rehabilitation of National Highway N-15, Basian ~ Balakot Naran Section, one of the badly damaged four major roads by the earthquake of October 8, 2005 has been undertaken by NHA under Contrct-16 with financial assistance from the World Bank. 65 Km length is included in the rehabilitation / reconstruction work. First phase starts from Km 37+600 and ends at Km 81+600 (Balakot to Mahandri 44 Km Length). The road lies to the east of river “Kunhar” in a steep sided valley. The damage was extensive and comprised of slips, slides and longitudinal and transverse cracks. At places the road had gone down in steps of upto 2m height and there had been over burden of slide material upto 6 - 7 meters. Prior to earthquake the road comprised a 5.5m pavement with 1m shoulder on each side. There are 5 bridges, 49 culverts and 42 causeways in the first phase of the project.
Rehabilitation strategy included widening of ROW from 13m to 20m. Width of paved section is 7.3m with 2.5m shoulder on valley side, 2m shoulder on hill side including 1m drain and stabilization of slopes improving the alignment, reconstruction of retaining walls, breast walls, reconstruction of bridges culverts and causeways. To safeguard against aggravation of active slides, formation width in slide areas has been reduced to 9.3m.
Estimated implementation period for rehabilitation of this section is 30 months, which commenced on 4-May-2007. Revised completion date was 30th June 2010. 2nd EOT was granted to 30th November 2010 but some work remains to be completed. To reduce social disruption, NHA has decided that not widening be done in built-up areas, that is existing width will be retained.