Skip to main content

VIDEO: Balfour starts M3 bridge upgrade in UK following demolition

Balfour Beatty has started bridge work over the M3 motorway as part of a €205 million upgrade on highway connecting London to south coast ports. Balfour recently demolished the Woodlands Lane Bridge between junctions 2 and 3 near Windlesham on the M3 which runs from the capital to Southampton and Portsmouth. A new bridge is being constructed Balfour Beatty is working for the agency Highways England to reduce congestion this section of the M3 that handles more than 130,000 vehicle journeys every day.
November 23, 2016 Read time: 2 mins
1146 Balfour Beatty has started bridge work over the M3 motorway as part of a €205 million upgrade on highway connecting London to south coast ports.

Balfour recently demolished the Woodlands Lane Bridge between junctions 2 and 3 near Windlesham on the M3 which runs from the capital to Southampton and Portsmouth. A new bridge is being constructed

Balfour Beatty is working for the agency 8100 Highways England to reduce congestion this section of the M3 that handles more than 130,000 vehicle journeys every day. Once is it converted into a smart motorway and open in summer 2017, there will be an extra lane in both directions, increasing capacity by a third. Technology will be introduced to vary speed limits.

More than 250 engineers worked on the controlled demolition of Woodlands Lane Bridge which used a variety of methods to break up the structure and protect the carriageway beneath. This included installation of plywood protection, 150mm of timber mats and a further 600mm of crushed concrete.

Unfolding geotextile curtains contained dust and rubble as the bridge collapsed onto the protected area of the road below.

“The work went according to plan in spite of the poor weather conditions, safely, on time and the carriageway was reopened ahead of schedule,” said Stephen Tarr, managing director for major projects with Balfour Beatty.

For more information on companies in this article

Related Content

  • Kier rebuilds storm-damaged road in England’s tourist Cumbria region
    May 10, 2016
    The first of 20 steel posts have been positioned for major road repairs to the A591 road in northern England under a £40 million project to repair December storm damage. The A591 is a major local authority road in Cumbria. It links the M6 motorway near Brettargh Holt with important Lake District tourist destinations such as Kendal, Windermere, Ambleside, Grasmere and Keswick.
  • Kronprinsesse Marys Bro bridges Roskilde Fjord
    January 10, 2019
    A BESIX joint venture is giving the royal treatment to the new Kronprinsesse Marys Bro across Roskilde Fjord, writes David Arminas It was announced in September 2016 that Belgian group BESIX, in a joint venture (RBAI) with Italian firm Rizzani de Eccher and Spanish company Acciona Infraestructuras, had been chosen for the €133 million project. The award, by client Vejdirektoratet (Danish Road Directorate), marked the entry of BESIX into the Scandinavian market. Vejdirektoratet praised the winning bid as
  • Lower Thames Crossing contractor shortlist
    September 27, 2021
    The contractor shortlist has been announced for part of the Lower Thames Crossing.
  • Demolition starts for Gerald Desmond Bridge
    July 14, 2022
    The 125m-long span will be dismantled, cut and lowered onto a barge in the waters around the Port of Long Beach in the US state of California.