VIDEO: The moment the Bothwell Park Road Bridge was demolished over the M74
We all know part of the M74 was closed over the weekend, but now we’re getting a sneak peek behind the scenes at exactly what happened.
We all know part of the M74 was closed over the weekend, but now we’re getting a sneak peek behind the scenes at exactly what happened.
Transport Scotland’s released fresh footage of the moment the Bothwell Park Bridge was demolished.
It’s all part of a £500 million pan to improve the M8, M73 and M74 over the coming months.
It took a team of workmen 51 hours to clear the debris with the three mile stretch between Junction 4 Maryville and Junction 5 closed from 8pm on Friday until 11.30pm last night.
The time-lapse footage shows two metres of protective material being laid on the motorway carriageway on Friday evening, before two high-reach excavators on five metre high temporary platforms on each side of the bridge began to ‘peck’ the concrete on the central span, bringing the bridge down in a safe and controlled manner.
The two Komatsu high-reach machines, normally used for the demolition of tall buildings, were then joined by a further seven smaller excavators to demolish the outer spans. In total, more than 500 tonnes of concrete, rubble and steel fell onto the carriageway during the early hours of Saturday morning and continued until late Saturday night.
This mound of material then had to be removed from the carriageway and transported to a nearby processing area on site to be recycled. The recycled material will be reused to construct new link roads and junctions as part of the major up-grade of the M8, M73 and M74 motorways.
Graeme Reid, Transport Scotland Project Manager said: “This was the last of six bridges to be demolished as part of this essential project to improve Central Scotland’s motorway network, all of which were able to be carried out overnight. However, with no central pier to support each side of this structure, we had no option but to close the road for the weekend to ensure the safety of road users and our workforce.
“I’m delighted to report that the months of planning to bring down this bridge and the co-ordination of our many stakeholders, including Police Scotland, the emergency services and local authorities, has made for a highly successful operation, and I’d like to thank everyone involved for their efforts.
“Thanks must also go to the thousands of road users who listened to our advice and changed their travel plans over the weekend to avoid the area; without their help, we simply couldn’t have achieved such a successful outcome.”
The bridge was the final structure to be demolished as part of this £500m infrastructure improvement project which is being delivered by Scottish Roads Partnership (SRP) on behalf of Transport Scotland.
Gabriel Valtueña-Ramos, General Manager of SRP, said: “Our contractors Ferrovial Lagan Joint Venture and Amey worked round the clock to ensure the weekend demolition went as smoothly as possible, with 24 hour monitoring of the surrounding road network in place to minimise traffic disruption, and I’d like to thank all involved for contributing to the success of this complex and challenging operation.”