VIDEO: Bridge demolition on key A90 route in Scotland

November 4, 2015
Demolition work has been carried out on a bridge crossing the busy A90 route in Scotland, just to the north of the capital, Edinburgh. The bridge carried the B900 over the A90 but had to be removed as its narrow design prevented the route from being upgraded to full motorway status. The first stage of the demolition work was carried out on October 24th and 25th, with the second stage on October 31st and November 1st and final remedial work to be carried out on November 14th and 15th. The first stage of the demolition required the temporary closure of the A90 in a weekend possession, with any traffic being switched temporarily to the Kincardine Bridge some distance upstream. Geotextiles and wood panels were laid on the surface of the A90 to protect the asphalt from damage as the work was carried out. A number of excavators equipped with hydraulic breakers were used to tear down the old bridge structure, with the concrete rubble and steel reinforcement then being loaded into trucks and hauled away for recycling. The second stage of the bridge demolition involved similar measures to protect the roadway, as will the third.

Traffic on the B900 at South Queensferry had already been switched over to a new, wider bridge. The work is part of a series of upgrades to roads in the area being carried out along with the construction of the new Queensferry Crossing. This spans the Forth Estuary and will carry the major portion of traffic currently using the Forth Road Bridge, which opened in 1964.

A full report on the Queensferry Crossing will be included in the November/December 2015 issue of World Highways.

Related Content

  • KIT to study bridge vibration data
    July 7, 2025
    In Germany, the Karlsruhe Institute of Technology, KIT, will use acceleration sensors to gather vibration data from bridges to pinpoint structural degradation.
    Read More
  • Pittsburgh bridge blasted
    October 7, 2013
    Explosive demolition has been used to remove an old highway bridge in Pennsylvania. Some 90kg of explosives were used to blast the pre-weakened steel structure of the 87 year-old Masontown Bridge. The redundant steel truss structure lay just 3m from the new bridge now carrying Route 21 over the Monongahela River and connecting Masontown with Monongahela Township. The location of the explosives and the pre-weakening work carried out however meant that the old structure, built in 1925 and upgraded in 1933, fe
    Read More
  • Major Europe-Asia bridge connection in Turkey
    July 1, 2014
    The 3rd Bosporus Bridge and the Northern Marmara Motorway will improve transport links between Europe and Asia and cut chronic congestion in Istanbul, Turkey’s largest city - Mike Woof reports Work is now well underway on the 3rd Bosporus Bridge and the Northern Marmara Motorway, providing a new link for Turkish city Istanbul and the region as a whole. This enormous bridge and highway project is breaking several records for Turkey in terms of scale, as well as setting a number of international records for e
    Read More
  • Revamped international airport for Tunisia
    March 2, 2015
    Carthage International airport upgrade – Mike Woof writes. Improvement works are being carried out at one of Tunisia’s major airports in a move aimed at improving capacity. A key component of the work is the upgrading of the runways and taxiways at Tunis Carthage International Airport (TCIA), allowing the facility to handle larger aircraft as well as higher volumes of air traffic. The work is being carried out by ETEP, which is building the new infrastructure to the latest international standards for runway
    Read More

Highlighted Content