A bridge demolition will take place over the Bank Holiday weekend to further enable major motorway improvements valued at £282 million.
Coventry demolition contractor Armac Group is due to carry out the collapse of the old Solihull Road bridge (M42) this coming weekend, having been brought in by National Highways.
The works signal the next phase of a multi-million-pound programme to upgrade Junction 6 of the M42 in Solihull, for which Skanska is the main contractor managing development.
Once the existing Solihull Road bridge is brought down by Armac, Skanska will commence construction of new slip roads for the new Junction 5a on the M42.
To complete the bridge demolition safely, the M42 will need to be fully closed in both directions between Junction 5 (Solihull) and Junction 6 (NEC/Birmingham Airport) from 10pm on Friday 5 May to 5am on Monday 8 May.
A fully signposted diversion route will be in place, said National Highways.
Previous works include the installation of new overhead gantries displaying real-time traffic updates.
The construction of retaining walls for the new junction is also a key part of the upgrade design to ease congestion.
Armac specialises in demolition, rail and civils works, land reclamation, asbestos removal, and remediation and refurbishment strip-outs.
Previous projects by the firm include Olympic Way in Wembley, where it carried out preconstruction, as well as the complete demolition of the iconic Wembley Way pedestrian footbridge, on behalf of Volker Fitzpatrick.
At Axis House in Birmingham, Armac provided service isolations, asbestos removal, soft-strip, demolition of a 12-storey structure and basement, and excavation of slab level and concrete cores, as principal contractor for Quantum, on behalf of London & Continental Railways (LCR).
“Safety is always our top priority and we need to close the M42 so that teams can work safely on the road to demolish the old bridge,” said National Highways programme lead, Jon Slemmonds.
“We’re doing this work over the Bank Holiday weekend when we know the road will be quieter but we’re still reminding drivers to plan ahead and to leave additional time for their journeys.”
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