The Avonmouth Bridge is a road

bridge A bridge is a structure built to span a physical obstacle (such as a body of water, valley, road, or rail) without blocking the way underneath. It is constructed for the purpose of providing passage over the obstacle, which is usually somethi ...

that carries the

M5 motorway The M5 is a motorway in England linking the Midlands with the South West England, South West. It runs from junction 8 of the M6 motorway, M6 at West Bromwich near Birmingham to Exeter in Devon. Heading south-west, the M5 runs east of West Brom ...

over the River Avon into

Somerset ( en, All The People of Somerset) , locator_map = , coordinates = , region = South West England , established_date = Ancient , established_by = , preceded_by = , origin = , lord_lieutenant_office =Lord Lieutenant of Somerset , lord_ ...

near

Bristol Bristol () is a city, ceremonial county and unitary authority in England. Situated on the River Avon, it is bordered by the ceremonial counties of Gloucestershire to the north and Somerset to the south. Bristol is the most populous city in ...

, England. The main span is long, and the bridge is long, with an air draught above mean high water level of . It also has a separate footpath and cycleway which connects the B4054 near Avonmouth station with the Royal Portbury Dock and the village of

Pill Pill or The Pill may refer to: Drugs * Pill (pharmacy), referring to anything small for a specific dose of medicine * "The Pill", a general nickname for the combined oral contraceptive pill Film and television * ''The Pill'' (film), a 2011 fil ...

Construction

The bridge was built with three lanes each way, with full hard shoulders. In 1995–2000, it was widened to four lanes each way, with the result that the hard shoulders are no longer of full width. The bridge was built to allow tall ships underneath. This gave the bridge steep

gradients In vector calculus, the gradient of a scalar-valued differentiable function of several variables is the vector field (or vector-valued function) \nabla f whose value at a point p is the "direction and rate of fastest increase". If the grad ...

that cause heavy vehicles to slow down, resulting in congestion during rush hour and the summer tourist season: traffic can back up both on the bridge and on the approaches. The construction contract was let to Fairfield-Mabey and commenced in 1969; Fairfield-Mabey placed a sub-contract with Tarmac Civil Engineering for the foundations, piers and deck concreting works.

Surface

The approach and initial climb up the bridge have a smooth asphalt surface; however, on the top of the bridge the surface was uneven and bumpy when it was built. In September 2006, it was announced that the entire bridge would be resurfaced, only five years after the last resurfacing. This was completed in November 2009 by the construction firm Stirling Lloyd. However, the surfacing was carried out by Stirling Lloyd's partners Aeschlimann AG from Switzerland using its own workforce and importing all the plant used. A new type of

asphalt Asphalt, also known as bitumen (, ), is a sticky, black, highly viscous liquid or semi-solid form of petroleum. It may be found in natural deposits or may be a refined product, and is classed as a pitch. Before the 20th century, the term ...

called Gussasphalt was used on the bridge deck, The project was managed by Stirling Lloyd's Darren Holmes. In addition to having a smooth, skid-resistant finish, it requires no compaction and can be applied in very thin layers ( Each layer only 25 mm thick), thus reducing the weight added to the bridge. It is also flexible and as a result should last longer than the previous resurfacing.

References

External links

* *
The Motorway Archive - M5 Junction 18 to 19
Bridges completed in 1974 Bridges in Bristol Motorway bridges in England Bridges in Somerset

Bridge A bridge is a structure built to span a physical obstacle (such as a body of water, valley, road, or rail) without blocking the way underneath. It is constructed for the purpose of providing passage over the obstacle, which is usually somethi ...

M5 motorway Bridges across the River Avon, Bristol {{UK-bridge-struct-stub