Timelapse footage shows M42 bridge demolition
A 20 strong team from Solihul-based Armac have removed a 4,000-tonne concrete bridge over the M42 to make way for the construction of the new high-speed line across the motorway near the Interchange Station construction site in Solihull.
Armac, working on behalf of HS2’s main works contractor in the Midlands, Balfour Beatty VINCI (BBV), carried out the demolition in a 52-hour operation, ahead of schedule.
The operation was coordinated in conjunction with National Highways, who were able to open the motorway section between Junctions 6 and 7 three and a half hours earlier than planned, reducing disruption to road users.
The demolition saw the M42 closed in both directions late on Friday, 9 February, with the 20-strong team working throughout the night to prepare the area for the demolition activities.
The operation was coordinated in conjunction with National Highways, who were able to open the motorway section between Junctions 6 and 7 three and a half hours earlier than planned, reducing disruption to road users.
The demolition saw the M42 closed in both directions late on Friday, 9 February, with the 20-strong team working throughout the night to prepare the area for the demolition activities.
Starting at 07.00 on Saturday 10 February, the demolition team used a 100-tonne excavator and a further seven 50-tonne demolition excavators to complete the operation, supplemented by numerous breaker and cruncher attachments. Six articulated dumper trucks (ADT) transported the excavated material to a local stockpile where it will be crushed and reused on HS2’s haul roads and work sites.
Once the bridge was demolished at around 15.00 on Saturday, the debris was removed, the matting taken away, the carriageway cleaned, and central reservation and verge restraint systems reinstated, ready for the motorway to be re-opened at 01.30 on Monday 12 February.
It is the second of two 4,000-tonne bridges over the M42 that have needed to be demolished so HS2 can build a new twin box structure, which will carry the high-speed line over the motorway in the future. The operation by Armac to demolish the first bridge took place in August last year.
The original plan was to demolish the second bridge next year. However, due to two drivers on the motorway below recently striking the bridge, National Highways asked HS2 to demolish the bridge sooner because it had become unsafe.
Later this year, the BBV team will start construction of the huge twin box structure, which will carry HS2 trains over the M42. Enabling works commence in March and piling is due to start in August.
This new, 300m-long, 25m-wide structure will cover around 130m of the M42 and will be built in position while maintaining three lanes of traffic flowing on the M42.
This section of HS2 railway lies between Interchange Station in Solihull and the Delta Junction, a triangular section of the line that enables trains to either travel into Birmingham’s Curzon Street Station or carry on north, where trains will join the West Coast Main Line to Manchester.
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