VIDEO: Balfour starts M3 bridge upgrade in UK following demolition

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.