How Do You Move A 52,000 Ton Motorway Bridge? Glasgow's Kingston Bridge & M8 Motorway
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- Опубликовано: 6 окт 2024
- #glasgow #scotland #infrastructure #bridge
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The M8 motorway passes through the centre of Glasgow and when it comes to crossing the River Clyde, the Kingston bridge provides the solution. However, it nearly didn't and at one point was on the verge of collapse. It turns out they didn't do a good job of building it, or predicting the traffic levels.
A 10 year bridge repair project ensued but of course, how do you fix such a structure and how do you move it out the way in order to do so?
Thanks John. What a splendid technical term - the structure was buggered!
@@judsonsimzer1463As a civil engineer, I can confirm it's only one step down from F'in Buggered.
I am also an engineer and for economy of words it can't be beaten!
@@alangknowles then "Busted" is the term for something beyond "F'in Buggered"
A stronger version of something like Situation Normal, All Fouled Up perhaps. 😮
In more polite company Bastard Buggered can be safely used, Jacking Up however needs more careful use.
This is surreal. I actually worked on this bridge back in the 90's. I remember going through the original engineers City Ring Road drawings in the office out of curiosity. The reason traffic loads were so great was due to the Kingston Bridge originally being designed as part of a City Ring Road system, which was never completed. It was intended for the Kingston Bridge to have twin on the East side of the city with a motorway on the south side that mirrored the section on the north side that would allow drivers to skip round the outside of city, as opposed to all traffic being forced through the narrow section of urban motorway and over the bridge. You can actually see where the southern section of the ring road would have joined the Bridge as there are two sections of bridge deck that come to a dead end in mid air. There are actually quite a few sections of Urban M8 that were built with the intention of creating more on/off slip roads, which can still be seen here and there. Eventually the M74 extension was built to link the M74 from Ballieston Interchange to the M8 at the south end of the Bridge to compensate. This extension diverted unwanted traffic away from the city centre and bridge, unwanted being traffic that was forced to travel through the city that wasn't destined for the city. Overall it's a great example of the Jevons Paradox.
I think, and I'm happy to be corrected, that north bound traffic used to be able to exit the bridge at Anderston. This was very handy although I think you had to get in lane pretty quickly. You probably had to endure a few hand gestures as you slew across lanes to get into the correct lane in time. During the remedial work and lane restrictions this was removed and never reinstated meaning that all city bound traffic was and still is forced along Bothwell Street or maybe it was only possible temporarily during the road works. All of that said you'd be aff yer heed as we locals say to try and cross the Kingston Bridge or drive in the city these days.
I read that in my head in the style of John.
Omg I was on that job too!!
@@PaperCameraFilms Yes, this caused a tremendous amount of congestion to build up and needed to be eliminated, so the barrier was erected. From an engineers perspective: Free flowing traffic at the speed limit generates plenty of space between vehicles due to increased braking distance. With all the weaving to get to different exits taking place traffic came to a standstill. This meant the traffic bunched up nose to tail in all lanes resulting in a staggering increase in the load the bridge had to carry. Restricting lane changing significantly reduced the load. That said the Jevons Paradox is in full swing, so any such changes are always only temporary relief.
@@Kenny.W.Wallaceand now the Greens want to reduce the speed to 30mph, and due to the Woodside Viaduct works the Kingston Bridge bunches up at rush hour, mostly northbound, but Southbound bunches up leaving towards the M74.
My mate is a civil engineer for Glasgow City Council. He told me that the engineer in charge of this was on all sorts of tablets for stress. He said this had never been done before and they had to have a special software written to fire the Jack's but the jacks all had to fire at precisely the right time or the bridge could warp, and that would be the bridge knackered. Also the Jack's were not designed to hold anything for that length of time all a bit of an unknown.
On the day it was lifted there was engineers from all over the world as it had never been done before.
The guy became something of a celebrity in engineering circles and a leading authority on this type of thing.
Thanks for this video. My grandfather was a structural civil engineer until he retired in the late 1980s when he was head engineer at Burmah Oil in Glasgow. He wrote to those directly involved in the bridge´s construction at the time the Kingston Bridge was being built and also sent this letter to Glasgow City Council and several Scottish newspapers at the same time. He told me that at least one newspaper published his letter.
In the letter he pointed out, and predicted, exactly what your video states as the problems with the bridge and the consequences in 30 years hence (ie the 1990s). The fact that his letter and statements, via his engineering connections, were ignored always frustrated him and he felt double frustrated when his predictions were fully vindicated in the 1990s. He occasionally mentioned this until his death in 2019 at the splendid old age of 98.
I still picture him shaking his fist from heaven every time I drive over the Kingston Bridge.
That's a very interesting and heart-stopping story. May your grandfather rest in peace now that they've sorted it out - hopefully for good this time!
'A prophet is not without honor, except in his hometown and in his own household.' Mark 6:4.
How did Britain have optimism that lasted so long then after 2008 it's all "we can't afford it"
Until I see the letter I call BS
"The problem was, the structure was buggered"
Sums it up perfectly, with a neat little bow on top 😁😁😁
"Aye, we hud a look and it's basically f**ked, mate."
"How Do You Move A 52,000 Ton Motorway Bridge?" Very, very, very carefully as I recall. I was in one of the "over a hundred and sixty thousand vehicles a day" that used it while it was in the process of being moved. There was a slight nagging voice in the back of my head each time I did so that questioned whether today might be the day when we all went for a swim, but it never happened. Quite a feat of engineering as you said.
While we are on the subject of the M8, the River Clyde, and its related bridges, the nearby Erskine bridge was closed around the 5th August 1996 for a period after someone accidentally rammed it with an Oil rig. That bridge didn't fall down either. It seems we Scots build some pretty strong bridges. Well apart from the original Tay rail bridge of course, but that's a whole 'nother story.
Worth pointing out that the central griders would not have given way, at least many sensible men do say, had they been supported on each side with buttresses, at least many sensible men confesses, for the stringer we our houses do build, the less chance we have of being killed.
And it really was a proper dip in the middle. I remember it well.
and the original Tay Bridge was built by an Englishman...
@@kieranbeecroft8414 and he was in the running for the forth bridge too....
@@kieranbeecroft8414 His name was Thomas Bouch, which I believe is the origin of the phrase "botched job".
After getting buggered, I'm glad it was given the support it needed.
Coincidentally a similar situation now being employed just along from this where the Woodside viaducts carry both sides of the M8 north of Glasgow City Centre - the problem there being the joints at the top of the supports failing. So they are currently having temporary supports built at either side of each set of pillars before being jacked up for replacement - the main difference being that there are about 20 sets of pillars!
That’s fascinating as I’m at Glasgow School of Art doing postgrad and I look out at that situation and wondered what was going on….now I know!
And it would have been finished (and done cheaper) by now if they'd had new steel spans made like with the new M74-M8 link!
They could just have closed the motorway (one or both ways), demolished the old spans, removed the old supporting structures, rebuilt new supporting structures in the same place (thus avoiding all the underground services they're currently complaining about), and then put the new spans on top.
@CoolSteve08 I'm guessing you're not an engineer so that's probably not sarcasm.
There used to be a picture of this new marvel of engineering in Paisley college of technology.
When the bridge was freshly built.
I had a tour of this site recently; it's fascinating. The deck of the viaduct is in perfect condition but the tops of the piers (the pillars) are in a shocking state, it's not just the bearings. It looked to me like the drainage was badly designed and the tops of the piers have corroded and spalled terribly. It's going to be a really complex (and expensive) job to sort it.
In my opinion they should just demolish the viaduct and put the motorway on the ground. There's nothing under the viaduct of great value. They can move the Chinese supermarket to a better spot quite easily 😊
If I could add an extra like for the use of the High Road theme I would.
"If something does go wrong, we're going to know about it well in advance of any serious danger":- Stockton Rush, 2023
I have been trying to find the front page of the Daily Record/Sunday Mail for years where they had an artist's impression of it collapsing while full of traffic, complete with HGVs and buses falling into the river Clyde. I'm starting to think I imagined it al..
Same! I have always remembered that front page since childhood and haven't found it anywhere. We can't both be wrong, it must've been real!
That I'd like to see (the artist's impression, not an actual bridge collapse).
Give the Record’s archives a call. Central Library may have a copy as well.
ruclips.net/video/UktyNHAK1zc/видео.htmlsi=Kvj1I5Z6wE6-grd8
Time code 1:35 :)
I remember that one too!
As supporters of your Auto Shenanigans, we totally support your interesting video on bridge supports. Thanks John.
@StephenWalker42 As a fellow Shenanigans Supporter, I support your support support, since without support supporters there would be no motorway to shenaniganize any sideways slipping slip roads. 😂🤣🤠
I support you by supporting the support given by the other supporter on the video about bridge-supports. @@donalddodson7365
Thanks, Jon. In California (USA) the Department of Transportation (CalTrans) has become quite good at retrofitting bridges while minimizing closures, and repairing earthquake damaged highways with minimal disruption. Nice story. Well done.
You mean it doesn't take you guys weeks on end just to put out a few traffic cones!? Jealous!
I worked on that jacking project. There were three jacking systems the 128 B Jacks did the vertical lifting but it also had Jack's to control the left right stability and a third system to position the deck centrally between the piers.
Is your name jack by any chance
I know you did a video of the M6 in the North West, but you should do a video on the Thelwall Viaduct, especially the early 2000s closures of each side that saw the decks lifted whilst new roller bearings were installed. Pretty much made travel in the North West hell on earth for years until they finally finished it.
I remember the traffic reports on Key 103 back then... "And as usual the Thelwall Viaduct is a carpark, due to bridge repairs". That mess along with the M60 completion happening on the other side made getting about in Manchester and the surrounding areas back then a pretty soul destroying ordeal.
There’s long term 50 mph roadworks limits now between Thelwall and the M58 now so the intention is clearly to have that entire area crap on a permanent basis…..
@@johnmoruzzi7236that’ll be them “smart” motorways for ya
Back in the day when I was an engineer (of sorts) I had a friend who worked for Cleveland Bridge, a specialist bridge building contractors. He used to say that any old fool of an engineer could design a bridge that wouldn't fall down, the real skill lay in being able to design one that would only just stay up, and thus would be a lot cheaper to build. Thankfully our Scottish engineers seem to have had other ideas, and instead built this with some decent margins... otherwise there could have been a lot of extra scrap metal suddenly landing in the Clyde. Worryingly I drove across the Morandi suspension bridge in Genoa, in a rainstorm, just a week before that one collapsed. I think my guardian angel was doing overtime that week!
My grandfather was a civil and mining engineer who designed railway bridges.
He said an engineer is someone who designs for sixpence what a fool knows should cost a shilling.
@@alanbrown5593 This may be true for most bridges, but one where it's definitely not is the Forth Rail Bridge. Construction started on it only a few years after the Tay Bridge collapse, so the engineers' priority was to make very, very sure that the same thing wouldn't happen again. This resulted in a massively over-engineered bridge; the rumour is that they looked at what the maximum wind speed in the area was likely to be, figured out how strong a bridge would need to be to withstand double that wind speed, then doubled that.
@@Michael75579And takes to the maximum amount of paint.
I used to work underneath the bridge, and when the deck was being lifted, the gossip was all about how many bodies would be found underneath the supports! There was an urban myth that several underworld-characters ended up in the concrete support pillars, but alas none were found during the works.
Yeah, most are out on the Fenwick moors, no doubt to be discovered in 2000 years when archaeologists will identify them as victims of ritual sacrifice 😂
@@geecars6263 No doubt those archeologists will wonder about the knee-capping the skeletons display.
@@TheManFrayBentos And why many appear to have been shot up the a*se 😬
@@TheManFrayBentos an historical ritual to prevent the dead chasing us if they ever rose up!
@@geecars6263 I think one was found up there a few years back..... well a few bits, but not the whole body :/
Next bridge investigation for you - Thelwall Viaduct on the M6. They found a perished bearing on an original support and closed the entire carriageway within 12 hours. They had to replace every bearing, then on discovering they had put the wrong ones in, had to do it again. Can't remember how long the bridge was shut - 18 months?
The wrong ones?! Good grief...
They close some part of the elevated section of the M4 immediately, some years ago, because it developed a crack. Was that just before the Olympics? I remember there was talk about how this was going to cause tremendous transport problems getting athletes from the West of London to Stratford (turned out that other routes are available...).
@@abarratt8869 You're thinking of the Hammersmith flyover on the A4. It was shut in December 2011 reopened in January 2012 to a single lane of light traffic in each direction whilst repairs were made to the worst bit before the Olympics then afterwards the rest was done.
If I remember correctly, the load calculation decided that if you had 44 tonne HGVs nose to tail for the entire span in all ten lanes, there was a chance it may do a little more than sag in the middle. They closed one lane in each direction, and stopped certain slip roads accessing the through route, and for the first time in 25 years, traffic actually flowed on the bridge, rather than staggered across. This also moved the congestion from the bridge to the Townhead and Tradeston stretches instead
I love the idea of moving a really heavy bridge even if it's only a few centimetres. The A34 near Oxford did some bridge shifting by several metres a few years when they built a new bridge beside the old one, demolished the old one, and then pushed the new bridge sideways into the resulting gap in one weekend (all the while keeping the road open apart from a few weekend closures).
At least the transport department in the UK actually replaces it. Minneapolis, Minnesota had an unfortunate event with I-35W's bridge, which one day on 1st August 2007, the entire structure collapsed into the Mississippi River during rush hour traffic. One of the gusset plates (the thing that connects girders to columns) gave way and killed 13 and injured 145. You can find video on RUclips of the collapse, too.
EDIT: The Ohio Department of Transportation is actually replacing a fifty-year old bridge near me. What they do is a little different: ODOT builds completely new roadbeds, shuts down the old bride, and then rebuilds it.
Some relatives of mine drove over that bridge in Minneapolis the day before. Too close for comfort.
I followed the consequences and investigation into that bridge collapse. It was basically a design flaw. The gusset plates transferring longitudinal loads in one girder as transverse load in another were riveted to both. The load was supposed to be born by the friction between the plates and girders caused by the pressure from the rivets holding everything together.
The mistake was to fail to understand how such a joint behaves as the bridge is warmed by the sun and cooled. The temperature cycling actually causes the joint to very slowly creep, despite the friction.
Eventually, the joint moves enough that the load is beginning to get transferred as a shearing action on the first rivet to get trapped as its holes slowly move out of alignment. And, because the riveting is not a precision cut thing, it's one rivet first. The shear load builds, and that rivet snaps in half. The pressure from the rivets is reduced, and the joint can now move a little faster. Another rivet snaps, then another, and all of a sudden there's not enough left. Quite a mistake to make.
The more startling fact is that there's over 70,000 bridges in the USA with the same basic design flaw. They're all going to suffer this problem and fate, if not altered or replaced. Replacing 70,000 bridges in short order is a lot of work to do quickly...
That's the problem with infrastructure tenders. The same basic design tends win every time, because it's the cheapest. If it's flawed, it's a looming disaster. We've had problems here in the UK with concrete cancer, e.g. Spaghetti Junction, and other structures that followed the same recipe of concrete. We now seem to favour enormous steel girders forming the whole span in one piece, simply laid on top of the bridge ends / piers, with concrete slabs on top for the road deck. Makes me wonder if all the older concrete bridges are going to be problematic...
Just watched it. Very sad.
I remember that one and the failure of the gusset plates.
The strengthening work on the Forth Road Bridge's towers is fascinating. Essentially cut a hole at the bottom, slide a box girder in, jack it up, slide another one in, jack it up, until they hit the top.
So, a re-skinning job but inside out? That's quite amazing!
And then after all that work, discovered it is the cables that are the problem.
@@Species1571 I think the cables are problematic for much longer. They had to repair the rest (towers, deck) so that they could reopen it to traffic because the new bridge wouldn't be ready any time soon.
The new bridge is a good design : replaceable cables.
Splendid. To the standard of a local news report now, Jon.
He would never stoop so low.
Good evening, I'm Tom Tucker
Start calling him John MacKay
Love it! Especially when you cover scottish roads. Keep up the great work.
In my part of the world we had a road bridge we had to do this sort of thing to.
Only no need to remove the old bridge supports, the freight train derailment did that, demolished an entire row of columns right where two main bridge spans join.
Had the pleasure of working on that project for the company that drilled the bolt holes and managed to get inside the structure. Quite surreal to stand inside. 😊
when i was at school one of my friends dads was working on this project and we went in for a visit and got to see how the plan was laid out first hand. Was really interesting and i think about it everytime i drive over the bridge.
The cost of building this bridge today would be about the same as what has currently been paid out by the taxpayer on the 2 ferries lying down at Ferguson's Shipyard in Greenock. Having said that the SNP have many more bridges to build before they could be let loose on overseeing a project like this.
Reminds me of an incident when I was working on the earthworks for Ebbsfleet international station, there was a bridge under the A2 which needed to be widened to take 4 lanes rather than the original 2, but that was easy as it had a big embankment on one side piled up against the bridge abutment, so they dug it away. A few weeks later there was a panicked phone call to the chief engineer from one of the survey teams that the entire bridge had moved something like 50mm in a few days, which is quite a lot for a bridge! :) Cue lots of people running around trying to work out how to stop the whole thing collapsing. I left that site a couple of weeks later so I don't know what their solution was, but it must have worked as the bridge is still there 20-something years later. :)
Wowsers. Opened up with a transporter just 10 seconds in. I feel spoiled and humbled Mr J.
I see Jon has "Taken to the High Road" this week judging by the outro...
If you want to see knackered bridges, there's a few in Hull. They're over a hundred years old and rusting away, you'd have thought being that old that they'd have had plenty of time to plan replacing them, but someone slapped listed tags on them, so the council's done nothing much more than paint them occasionally over the last 40 years. One's been half removed, one's been closed for a few years and inspected a few times to see if it's fallen in yet, and there's three more that I wouldn't give much more than another 25 years.
I love this kinda thing. You never think about the road when you're using it.
The seagull voiceover was a surprisingly welcome addition to another superb video
You're very good at explaining things. I'm starting to realise that the lackadaisical touches are a bit of an act.
You should make a video on the old Forth road bridge.
I'm still annoyed that they didn't call the new one "Third Forth Bridge"
There was an even bigger bridge lift near the east end of the M8 in the 90s. They had to jack the main suspension cables of the Forth Road Bridge (A90) up off the towers to replace the mounts as part of a project to significantly strengthen the towers.
The cast additiions of seagull and long-haired rat - aka Yorkshire Terrier - received praise and treats after filming was completed. :)
I seem to remember that there was concern about movement of the Kingston Bridge when I was an engineering student at the University of Strathclyde in the 1970s...
And here was I lamenting in the M8 video that you’d “missed” this part of the Kingston Bridge history…bravo, for the standalone video rather than an aside in the previous! 👏🏻
Interestingly, there had been a plan to replace the bridge entirely and they’d even gone so far as to select a suspension design that had recently been completed in Brazil. This bridge promptly collapsed and the designer’s credentials called in to question, so Glasgow went with the lift and repair instead…! 😂
That is some bridge Jon, it must nerve racking for the engineers to jack that bridge so precise mm by mm. about 6 year's ago, the A483 Wrexham by-pass had 2 bridges jacked up the columns were getting week. The By-pass was built in 1972 and one of the earliest dual carriageway's in North Wales. The Bersham flyover and the bridge over B5101 just before J4 at Mold road junction A541 for Mold and City centre.
As always great to watch ,take care👍
I cross this bridge everyday. I just learned more in under 4 mins than 20 years driving across it.
Thank you.
Good to see you back in Scotland again
Always a unique and interesting presentation!! 👍
As one of a certain age, I remember the build well, and the consequences. My business (then run by my grandfather) was at the time located just along the road on the Broomielaw and he always said the land was too weak to withstand the load, being on a river plain. Reading the fascinating comments from those who worked on it, I see there's more to it, but I think it's still a good theory.
Some of the older folk I work with are almost excessively proud of the work they did on this. We had a bit of a downturn not long after, so there wasn't a lot to shout about in the succeeding years.
Excellent bedtime viewing Jon. Thank you 👏🏻
Could just do with it being an extra 56 minutes long 😁👍🏻
Everyone loves a big old bridge.
Except me.
(Bridges make me cross)
You win 100 internet points for that joke. Spend them wisely.
You'll get over it.
Long suspension bridges are more easily taught, because they have long a tension spans.
@@abarratt8869 I truss these jokes will get better.
@@AndyHullMcPenguin One civil engineer to another, whilst surveying the dislodged bridge: "Hey, why cantilever the span back into place with a crow bar?".
To think I have been over that bridge so many times and never knew about the history of repairing the bridge.
Loved the gull sound at the end
I worked nightshift on the bridge in 1998, painting some of the new supports. There are 6 tunnels , or cells as they're known inside the bridge which you can walk from one side to the other, at the centre of the bridge you have to crawl through, the traffic is only a few feet above your head.
This video could have really benefited from some archive photos of the bridge before and after the works as visually it's really a stark difference and helps show the scale of the work done.
A short and sweet video. *Abridged* even.
They did a similar thing at the M5 / A40 interchange (M5 J11) a few years ago...they replaced all of the concrete supports, yet leaving the original road deck undisturbed.
I remember that being done. Incredible as it was so far off the ground!
Indeed; must be 80 feet or so! @@sr6424
I knew of a small team who were monitoring the movement in the bridge using Survey Equipment during the early 90s.
I was involved in computer repairs for a couple of years in this project back in the 90s
I love a nice bridge, this one is a bit plain looks wise but such a mean feat of engineering to go with it, it gets a 7/10 👍🏼
As a bridge it's nowt to look at but aye, I remember the coverage all this got as every new stage was underway.
3:45 Unexpected 'Take The High Road' theme!
You git - I just about choked on my drink when you made an airplane noise for the passing gull...
All that preamble for a short video about a Yorkie. This is what we are here for.
Respect for the amount of research for every video. A skill making something possibly dull interesting. Loved the coda of unscripted interactions.
I was part of the team which monitored the bridge, on the evening when it was lifted and moved. So I tell people I've lifted the Kingston Bridge
Nice one, I can relate. An overpass south of here - rather smaller than Kingston Bridge - was officially declared buggered a couple of years ago, and the simple solution was to bolt concrete on to the existing piers.
Really informative video. Coincidentally there is a new footbridge being positioned just downstream from the Kingston Bridge any day now
It was lifted yesterday around 5pm! I think it's just the rotating part though, I think the fixed part is still to come.
Best knackered bridge is the one just outside Ongar, which has had a temporary structure next to the original bridge for over 20 years!
I came onto RUclips in my seni drunken state to listen to music, but instead your video has drawn me in again!! 😁
Riveting stuff sir, i could not take my eyes off the screen and i was all ears during your unique narration
great channel by the way and lots of work you put into it
I done a few similar jobs albeit not as large. It is quite common to jack bridges up to replace bearings and thankfully bridges are now designed to do it without spending more than the original cost of the bridge.
What a pleasant surprise. Wednesday afternoon with Jon.
I liked the footage of the sand chickens (sea gulls).
I've been sagging in the middle for years.
Where I currently live they are referred to as shitehawks.
Buggered!! 😀 so love that word!! 🙂
Excellent work John... "raising" the bar again ;)
I wrote some software that collected up the data from all those sensors and produced ptetty graphs showing how the movements were cyclical as the ambient temperature changed through the year, and how they were gradually shifting over time. On the night of the lift i was in one of the little portalabins under the south approach anxiously watching the live numbers coming on. As i recall it all went absolutely as planned which was a relief all round!
Fascinating ! Great to see how well you have done these spin offs.
The local tabloid (Daily Record) ran an image of the bridge falling into the clyde on it's front page - totally "photoshopped" (90's equiv) of course. It caused a bit of panic, but sold lots of papers!
Take the High Road! Haven't heard that in a while!
Hmm, this may not fit the format, (since this is about an A-road) but they built a new off-ramp bridge next to the old one on the A38 outside Plymouth (Marsh Mills) and once built, over night they demolished the old bridge and slid the new one into place. I think there was a TV show about it. Must have been the late 90s. Edit: Found it. Apparently this was this first time this had ever been done: ruclips.net/video/EXKYLCGWk7Q/видео.html
Was going to mention that one too - quite something apparently!
I hope everyone has a great day
have you had a good week?
@@brantnuttallI’ve had a wonderful week, have you had a good week?
@@diamondizaak6042 I have and welcome to another exciting episode of secrets..................
Most good video as always. Very interesting
Imagine if the M8 motorway was built underneath Glasgow City Centre rather than above Glasgow without having to hear the noise of traffic passing through Glasgow. Was there any plans to build a twin bore tunnel for the M8 Motorway to go underneath Glasgow. Or the M8 Motorway to avoid Central Glasgow completely.
I’d love to see an episode on the Clifton flyover (Nottingham, A453/A52) and the fracas that became.
Next time you are (unfortunate to be) in Warrington, go to Bridge foot and see the Academy building - where Joseph Priestley of oxygen fame once worked. That building, though substantially lighter, was shifted several feet North way back in the 1970s. There used to be a statue of Oliver Cromwell outside it. I don't know if that's still there but apparently Queen Victoria, when passing on her royal train, would draw the curtains in protest.
Quite fascinating really, engineering is such a wonderful thing.
Love jons presenting
I'm good Jon, thanks for asking! 😂
Me and Tam replaced the main bearings when it was up.
On this kind of subject....check out the westbound carriageway of the M4 across the second Severn crossing which kept developing a hole....I was on a team that kept having to put closures on that section....full time job!....I did it for two years and got bored with it and moved on to another boring traffic management job...and kept on moving from boring job to boring job....life!...
Would be a good time to film the m62 ouse Bridge. Rumour is its damaged beyond repair after years of lack of maintenance. Lowered it 4 lanes and 50mph 4 years ago and now down to 30 mph
They're doing some work but it's unlikely to be enough to get it back to being 6 lanes at 70mph again
My in-laws used that bridge just about every weekend as they head out to their bungalow in Bridlington. They don`t have many messages of "support" for the bridge to be honest...
@MrBreadman1966 as with everything in this region, minimal funding possible and now its going to cost more than was saved just to repair or replace it. Whilst it's entirely different departments, we also have some of the most outdated rail infrastructure as well. Could have really done with some of the money wasted on HS2 been spent on projects up here. Would have only needed a small fraction of it.
To my knowledge, they've _never_ had this sort of problem with the bridge that leads into Glasgow Central, and that's about a century older than this one! 🚂🚄😇
We also had the same problem with Autobahn bridges built in the 1960s.
These can hardly withstand the traffic. The solution is to build a third bridge. Then a bridge in one direction is demolished and replaced. Then the second old bridge will be demolished.
After that, it's just a question of moving the new bridge that was built first.
Fascinating!
I had seen all the patches and nuts and bolts going in as I was regularly in the area , I always wondered what the reason for it was ,later the "squinty" bridge in Glasgow had issues with it's hangers,
Given some half decent material you turn out a great video (the series on motorways of Scotland would have floored Spielberg!). Well done.
Wow. Who knew such a feat of engineering took place in Glasgow.
There soughould be a plaque to explain what happened and it needs a good clean / painting to respect the engineers who worked on it.
Love your videos, keep it up!
Thanks a lot mate, really appreciate that.
Thanks for another great video. Great stuff.
Interesting fact! That wee boat looking thing just beside it is the original renfrew ferry! Now some mad venue thing. Interesting choice to use it and not alot of people aware of its historical significance. Especially to folks of renfrew and yoker.
Cracking vid as always!
I can remember this happening. It was a pretty embarrassing time for the Transport chiefs, especially as so much money had just been spent increasing capacity on the Woodside Viaduct section and its eastern approaches. Curiously, that section is now in danger of becoming an unplanned spontaneous ground level road, and has had restrictions on it for a few years now, which, if hadn’t been for the M74, would mean HGVs having to negotiate city centre roads.
Thankfully, I rarely have to drive on the M8 these days, as I live only a couple of miles from the M74, so get to avoid most of the drama.
The are no weight limit restriction on the Woodside Viaduct and LGV's have never been diverted to the M74 extention Bob.
You went a wee bit Daily Record with that story there
There are signs as you approach Glasgow suggesting HGVs use the M73/M74 at the moment. Nothing legally enforceable but they are there.
"Narrowed lanes have been introduced on the mainline of the M8 over the structures. HGVs are being encouraged to consider using an alternative route via the M74 where possible due to these narrow sections."
www.traffic.gov.scot/woodside-viaduct
The city is full of BadBobs. Moaning about the state of the roads, moaning that the same roads are closed for repairs. Total Daily Record@@red00eye
That is due to the narrowing of lanes approaching the bridge for construction works. Its bad enough with cars@@jonnyholton2196
The bridge was designed by WA Fairhurst Civil Engineers. I worked with the chap back in the early 90's who was involved in the design. Of course when the council found the issue lets blame the designers, but as you say the amount of cycles of loading which is the vehicles per hour was way less than what anyone ever dreamed of they were found not liable so cleared of any design liability.
Very carefully