Highway Care witnessed first-hand the recent, historic closure of a section of the M25 to enable the demolition of a bridge as part of the J10 improvement works. Highways reports.
The M25 closure involved close collaboration from across the project’s supply chain to ensure the work was carried out safely and the motorway was re-opened on time.
Highway Care was one of the companies on site for the carefully co-ordinated programme (operation pictured below), with the company’s ops team carrying out time-critical barrier removal and reinstatement works across five locations during the shutdown.
A historic shift
One of the Highway Care operatives on shift for the M25 J10 closure in March was Steve Diggins (pictured below), operative supervisor. He tells the story:
‘We arrived on site at about 11.30pm on the Friday night,’ he said, ‘and the motorway had been closed to traffic since about 9pm, so you might expect it to feel eerily deserted.
'The M25 is one of the busiest motorways in Europe, carrying about 300,000 vehicles every day, so it definitely was strange to see no traffic on the road; but it was very busy in a different way!
‘The removal of our BG800 barrier had to be co-ordinated around other mission-critical activities on site, and there must have been a team of around 300 people from various supply chain partners. We were all working together to get the job done and meet the deadline for demolition of the bridge and reinstatement of the normal carriageways so that the road could re-open on time.
‘Our team had meticulously planned our BG800 barrier removal to dovetail with other elements of the programme. We had our safety briefing before arriving on site, then over the course of the next four and a half hours, we removed around 300m of BG800 barrier from five locations, in a schedule aligned to the wider activity on site.
‘The same team then returned to site on Sunday afternoon, following demolition of the bridge, and installed the barrier in the same locations, with the addition of a new crash cushion, ready to protect road workers and road users as soon as the motorway re-opened.
‘It was the first time an operation like that has ever happened on the M25, but we’ve provided barrier removal and reinstatement services for bridge works twice before during delivery of the M25 J10 project. Two previous road closures on the A3 section of the improvement works have also required time-sensitive barrier operations for bridge demolition and construction works, so we were able to use that experience when planning and delivering our part of the J10 closure.
‘It’s great to have been involved in such a historic moment in the history of the UK’s motorway network, but what we did is all in a normal day’s or night’s work Highway Care.
'We travel across the UK deploying our BG800 barrier system and crash cushions to support road improvement and maintenance projects all year round. But this one was so high profile and so time-sensitive, it was brilliant when the road could be opened eight hours early!’
