National Highways has postponed planned work to install a huge new bridge as part of the £330m A30 Chiverton to Carland Cross upgrade after contractor Costain reported ‘unsuitable ground conditions’.
The A30 was due to be fully closed this weekend (3-6 February) between the Boxheater junction and Chiverton Cross roundabout to enable the installation of a new accommodation bridge at Tolgroggan.
A 600-tonne crawler crane will lift the 42-metre twin-beam steel overbridge onto recently constructed foundations east of the old structure. The old accommodation bridge will be demolished later in the year.
National Highways said the new bridge weights 275 tonnes, ‘the equivalent weight of 23 double decker buses or 887,097 standard Cornish pasties’.
However, Costain, principal contractor for the scheme identified unsuitable ground conditions for the lifting operation and the new bridge will now be installed the following weekend (10-13 February).
Neil Winter, National Highways’ senior project manager for the scheme, said: ‘We have taken the decision to put back the bridge installation by a week to ensure everything is right for what will be a large-scale lifting operation.
‘Adverse weather – a mixture of heavy rainfall and low temperatures – hasn’t helped recently; these circumstances are out of our control, and the safety and effectiveness of the operation are our primary concern.
‘Although we would have preferred to lift the bridge deck in place this coming week, we have allowed contingency in our programme, and decided to postpone to the following weekend to ensure that everything is in place ahead of the installation operation, and to give people as much notice as we can.
‘The extra time will improve the ground in terms of firmer footings for the crane operation, and we’re confident a slight delay will help the teams with that, without impacting on our future road opening date.’
National Highways stressed that the operation remains weather dependent, adding that in the event of adverse weather on the newly programmed weekend, a contingency weekend for 17-20 February is in place.
The existing access bridge has been in place since the Zelah bypass was opened in 1991
An accommodation bridge is one that preserves an existing road or path when a major new route is built across it.
The new bridge will cross both the realigned A30 and the new dual carriageway and opponents of the scheme have criticised the scale of the structure needed.
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