January 21, 2019 4.07 pm This story is over 62 months old

Two new bridges open for Eastern Bypass construction

Here’s what’s been happening behind the scenes
Two bridges are now open for contractors to gain access to the Lincoln Eastern Bypass site. Photo: Lincolnshire County Council

Two new bridges have been opened to allow contractors to access the Lincoln Eastern Bypass site, saving around 40,000 trips through the city.

The first bridge is a 41-metre span, 1,100 tonne bridge over the Market Rasen rail line (equivalent to 200 elephants) and the second is a 140-metre span temporary structure over the River Witham and is based on a design by the British Army.

The River Witham bridge has been assembled using 200-tonne and 300-tonne cranes and took a total of 6,000 hours to build. Once it’s no longer needed, it will be taken down and removed from the site.

 

Councillor Richard Davies, Executive Member for Highways and Transport, said: “These new massive pieces of infrastructure mean that the site team can now easily travel and move heavy plant, machinery and materials over the River Witham and Market Rasen to Lincoln rail line.

“Not only will this save the project team thousands of hours, but it will also save our site and construction vehicles 40,000 trips through Lincoln itself.

“These new crossings are the most recent new large structures completed as part of the bypass scheme.

“Once the bridge in Greetwell is no longer needed for construction traffic, the team will waterproof it, surface it and install its service ducts before opening it up to road users with the rest of the bypass in May 2020.

“Now that we have access over the river and delphs in Washingborough, our bridges team will now be focusing their efforts on getting the new permanent River Witham viaduct built, along with working on the Heighington Road overbridge and the four new pedestrian/cycle bridges spread across the route.

“More generally, Lincoln Eastern Bypass works are progressing really well, and we’re still on track for having the bypass open by May 2020.”

This is despite recent setbacks including the collapse of subcontractor Hawk Plant Ltd. 

Prior to this, and the catalyst for Hawk’s termination, was the collapse of construction giant Carillion.

The original completion date set for the project was December 2019.

The 7.5km Lincoln Eastern Bypass will link the A158 Wragby Road roundabout to the A15 at Bracebridge Heath

Lincolnshire County Council expects it to cut congestion in the city centre and it is predicted that traffic on Broadgate will be reduced by 25% when the scheme is completed.