There is going to be better fortification soon from sea tides for the 3-km national highway passing through the Maravanthe-Trasi villages. Here, the river water enters the sea.
Tetrapads are being constructed as part of a project initiated a couple of years
ago. Earlier, loosely-bound heaps of stones used to provide protection, but that proved inadequate.
Under this project, groins (walls built out of the coast into the sea) are built to offer protection from tides causing erosion. Also, sand gets deposited in the areas between the groins (each 120 meters apart), thus beautifying the coast, said officials of the Coastal Marine Construction and Engineering company.
Nine ‘T’-shaped tetrapads have come up where the coast is too close to the national highway. Elsewhere on the stretch, there are 15 ‘I’-shaped structures. The ‘I’-shaped structures are 100 metres long and the ‘T’-shaped ones are 76 metres long.
Sand below the tetrapads has been dug, up to a depth of 1.5 metres. Geo-fabric sheets have been placed below the stone heaps to give durability to the structure, said engineers of the company Kishore Kumar and Venkatesh. Work on the Rs 88-crore project is almost complete, except that of the tetrapads. The project is undertaken with funds from the Asian Development Bank and under the supervision of the department of ports.