Skip to main content

Severn Bridge resurfacing complete

Contractor Hanson has completed the latest phase of its resurfacing work on the Severn bridges following the removal of the toll booths and barriers. The contract for Highways England started in December 2018, when the tolls were abolished on the M4 Prince of Wales Bridge and M48 Severn Bridge, and resurfacing was needed for the new road layout. The move to provide free access for drivers from England into Wales is aimed at boosting the Welsh economy. Over the last few weeks Hanson has laid more than
April 30, 2019 Read time: 2 mins
Resurfacing work is complete for the Severn bridges
Contractor 2644 Hanson has completed the latest phase of its resurfacing work on the Severn bridges following the removal of the toll booths and barriers.


The contract for 8100 Highways England started in December 2018, when the tolls were abolished on the M4 Prince of Wales Bridge and M48 Severn Bridge, and resurfacing was needed for the new road layout. The move to provide free access for drivers from England into Wales is aimed at boosting the Welsh economy.

Over the last few weeks Hanson has laid more than 10,000tonnes of base, binder and surface course material to complete the remodelling of the westbound side of the M4 Prince of Wales Bridge. The contracting team laid the final 2,200tonnes overnight in just 12 hours – more than double the amount usually handled on a regular motorway nightshift.

As well as resurfacing the toll booth area, the work has included 950m of the westbound carriageway and a new emergency access road.

Next month (May), the Hanson team will start a similar job on the M48 Severn Bridge; resurfacing the toll booth plaza as well as 1.5km of carriageway on both sides of the bridge.

Hannah Milliner, Severn Bridges General Manager at Highways England said: “This is a significant project for the region and Hanson has worked collaboratively with Highways England and its contractors to ensure that we deliver these works both safely and to schedule. Hanson has played an important part in making toll removal a success. We are currently reaching the final stages of the scheme and drivers will soon be able to benefit from free-flowing motorways.”

For more information on companies in this article

Related Content

  • Get paid faster for your work by being efficient, optimised, and careful with resources… get connected now
    September 1, 2023
    In this, the third roundtable meeting in World Highways’ series of Connected Construction discussions, Guy Woodford discusses the implications of developments in artificial intelligence (AI) and machine control with world-class experts in their field. Find out what Elwyn McLachlan, vice president of Civil Solutions at Trimble, Murray Lodge, senior vice president and general manager of Construction at Topcon Positioning Group, and Magnus Thibblin, vice president Heavy Construction at Hexagon Geosystems have to say about how you should be positioning your company for a successful future.
  • Private owners seek a buyer for the UK’s only toll road, M6 Toll
    February 15, 2016
    Britain’s only toll road, the motorway M6 Toll, is up for sale by its owners, a consortium of banks that hope to recover some of the €2.45 billion of debt. The 27 owners of M6 Toll, including Crédit Agricole, Commerzbank and Banco Espirito Santo, took over the 43km pay-as-you-go toll road from infrastructure group Macquarie in December 2013 after a debt restructuring. Midland Expressway Limited (MEL), part of Macquarie Atlas Roads, continues to operate the six-lane motorway around the English city of
  • Tenders open for England’s A66 northern trans-Pennine route
    October 31, 2019
    A €52 million contract to design the transformation of the A66 northern trans-Pennine route in England is now up for grabs, according to Highways England. A tender is open for dualling the remaining single carriageway sections of the A66 which links the M6 motorway at Penrith in Cumbria and the A1(M) motorway) at Scotch Corner in North Yorkshire. The formal notice for the A66 Preliminary Designer, Construction Technical Advisor and Supervision tender process has been published in the Official Journal of
  • Kuwait’s key causeway contract under construction
    July 4, 2016
    A new causeway, crossing the Bay of Kuwait, is under construction and providing a major engineering challenge - Mike Woof reports. The new Sheikh Jaber Al-Ahmad Al-Sabah Causeway Project being built across the Bay of Kuwait is a massive engineering project that is costing around US$3 billion in all. This highly complex project involves the design, build, completion and maintenance of the causeway, which spans Kuwait Bay between Kuwait City and the Subiyah area. The 36km Sheikh Jaber Al-Ahmad Al-Sabah Cau