Road Structures

While tunnels are often more expensive than bridges, they can offer environmentally attractive options for transport schemes. Tunnels offer environmentally attractive options for a range of transport infrastructure schemes, but in many cases high construction costs may restrict their use.

A new raised dual carriageway to bypass the historic centre of the City of Wroclaw in south-east Poland will give access to the new Miejski Stadium in time for its role in the UEFA Euro 2012 football finals.

Highways service provider Balfour Beatty Mott MacDonald has completed a major milestone in a project to replace a bridge for use by the local community over the M5 motorway near the city of Bristol, south-west England.

The Danish government has given its approval for the construction of the 18km immersed tube Fehmarnbelt Tunnel, which will connect the country with Germany.

Doka designed and supplied a high-performing formwork technology solution for a challenging bridge project south of the German town of Halle. The 8,614m long single-cell box girder superstructure of the Saale-Elster Viaduct, with a typical cross section width of 13.9m, is borne on 220 piers, and has a constructional depth of 4m. It is mainly being erected on launching girders to minimise the impact on flora and fauna.

Innovative solutions are being applied to the construction of bridge structures as Patrick Smith reports. RMD Kwikform Iberica has engineered and supplied specialist formwork and falsework for construction of the much-needed Monteporreiro Viaduct in northern Spain. The viaduct will connect Monteporreiro with the Benedictine Monastery of San Bieito Lérez on the other side of the river, and in the process will ease congestion in the nearby town of Pontevedra, diverting some 5,000 vehicles/day.

Discussions on a new link between Denmark and Germany continue with Denmark's Transport Ministry publishing data showing that the proposed bridge option would be more costly than a tunnel.