THE bridge that carried the main road from Downend to Yate over the M4 has been reduced to rubble after a round-the-clock demolition operation.
The motorway was closed between the Bristol and Bath junctions for nearly 60 hours last month while a team of 45 contractors worked in 12-hour shifts to bring down the concrete and steel Badminton Road bridge, which was closed to motor traffic after being declared unsafe by inspectors in 2023.
Motorists, cyclists and pedestrians now face another year of waiting until the replacement bridge is expected to be ready to use.
During that time a 50mph limit will be imposed on the M4 past the site, and there will be at least one and possibly two more weekend closures to install the new bridge.
The old bridge was condemned after “accelerated deterioration and cracking” was found in the concrete and steel cable structure.
The new one, expected to cost £20 million, will not have moving parts such as bearings and joints that need to be replaced; the whole structure is designed to expand and contract as temperatures change.
Its beams will be made from low-maintenance ‘weathering steel’, which has a specially-formulated layer of stable rust that seals off the rest of the metal from the elements.
It will be 4m wider than the old bridge, with the same space for road traffic but extra room on wider cycle and pedestrian paths.