HA dismantles footbridge over M5 in England

Contractors worked solidly throughout the night during one Saturday and early Sunday morning in November (2012) to dismantle the Pegwell Brake footbridge over the M5 near Bristol, south west England. The concrete footbridge, located between junctions 16 and 17, needed to be demolished to make way for a new steel pedestrian bridge suitable for high-sided vehicles to pass under when the managed motorway is fully operational and the hard shoulder is used as a running lane. The dismantling and removal of the
January 3, 2013 Read time: 2 mins

Contractors worked solidly throughout the night during one Saturday and early Sunday morning in November (2012) to dismantle the Pegwell Brake footbridge over the M5 near Bristol, south west England.

The concrete footbridge, located between junctions 16 and 17, needed to be demolished to make way for a new steel pedestrian bridge suitable for high-sided vehicles to pass under when the managed motorway is fully operational and the hard shoulder is used as a running lane.

The dismantling and removal of the 220tonne bridge required the M5 being closed in both directions for the duration of the work, from 7pm on Saturday 10 November until around 8am the following morning, when both carriageways were fully opened.
The bridge was dismantled into two sections, each of which was hoisted and removed by cranes. This method of removal was required to avoid excessive vibration due to the presence of a pipeline on the northbound carriageway.

The new pedestrian bridge is planned to be in place and available for use by early 2013.

2309 Highways Agency project manager Paul Unwin said: “The removal of the old bridge is an essential part of the managed motorway scheme, and the closures meant that our workers were able to concentrate on doing a fantastic job in dismantling the structure as quickly and as safely as possible.”

Once completed, the €109.72 million (£88mn) managed motorway scheme will cut congestion, make journey times more reliable and improve safety through the use of variable mandatory speed limits and by opening the hard shoulder as an extra running lane. 

For more information on companies in this article

Related Content

  • Beatty awarded H Agency Hull A63 Improvement Scheme
    August 8, 2014
    Balfour Beatty’s UK construction business has been awarded the €94.45 million (£75 million) A63 Castle Street improvement scheme in Hull for the Highways Agency under an Early Contractor Involvement (ECI) design and build contract. The 1.5km scheme in the centre of the city in East Yorkshire, northern England will improve journey times for road users through conversion of a major interchange into a split level junction with a two-lane dual carriageway carrying east-west traffic below north-south traffic in
    Read More
  • Motorway's tricky cable installation
    February 6, 2012
    The UK is now benefiting from the installation of sophisticated automated traffic management equipment and information signs on its motorway network. But with heavy traffic volumes on these roads, novel techniques have had to be implemented. One such operation, organised by client The Highways Agency and its consulting engineer A.One+, has recently been underway on the M56 motorway between Junctions 9 and 16 in north-west England under the Triple Package Advanced Works designation. To minimise traffic distu
    Read More
  • Mullum Mullum Valley untouched by progress
    July 20, 2012
    Preserving the unspoiled Mullum Mullum Valley was the major consideration when deciding to build a traffic tunnel The answer to one of the major issues facing construction of the A$2.5 billion EastLink route in Australia was simple: construct a tunnel. While it was expensive, those involved realised they had little option but to go underground to protect the environmentally sensitive Mullum Mullum Valley, an untouched area of wood and bushland in Melbourne. EastLink, the 39km toll road project on the easter
    Read More
  • Using breakers to demolish redundant overpass
    December 11, 2015
    A demolition job in California was carried out successfully using a hydraulic breaker fitted to an excavator. An overpass on Highway 91 in Southern California had to be removed, with the contractor opting to use a hydraulic breaker for the job. The work was carried out within the 22-hour possession period set by the local authorities, allowing the route to reopen to traffic on time and minimising transport delays. The work was carried out safely and precisely, due to the use of suitable equipment. The re
    Read More

Highlighted Content