Video shows A8 bridge demolition

A timelapse video that shows the demolition a bridge on the A8 has been released by Transport Scotland.

The bridge has been demolished as part of the government agency’s M8 completion project.

Following more than a year’s worth of complex engineering works on the existing A8, Transport Scotland is advising motorists of significant changes to traffic management, including contraflows and the closure of slip roads and junctions in the coming weeks.

Graeme Reid, project sponsor for the M8 M73 M74 Motorway Improvements Project, said: “We are now seeing extensive traffic management on the A8 to allow the construction of the new M8 and to link the new carriageways and junctions to the existing road network – consequently, this will result in delays.”

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ekCbfYaWH5E

The complex operation to demolish the bridge at Chapelhall was carried out over two weekends, which saw construction crews working round the clock to bring down the bridge in two halves, with only minimal disruption to the 100,000 vehicles per day that use Scotland’s busiest trunk road.

The old bridge, which crossed the A8, linking Chapelhall to Holytown (B799), was too narrow to accommodate the new M8 motorway which has now been constructed beneath. The new Bo’ness overbridge, which took approximately 12 months to construct will span the new M8 motorway and A8 carriageways.