Gone in 60 seconds! Watch M6 Junction 10 bridge disappear as roadworks continue
After carrying traffic over the M6 for 50 years, the old bridge which spanned the motorway at junction 10 disappeared in under 48 hours.
And time lapse footage released by National Highways shows how the work was carried out.
Work finished in the early hours of Monday morning - more than four hours ahead of schedule - to remove the bridge which is being replaced by a more modern and wider, four-lane structure to tackle congestion at the busy junction.
National Highways project manager, Annie Hyett, said: “Demolishing a bridge of this size is a complex operation but everything went exactly to plan and we were delighted that we were able to get the motorway open several hours earlier than planned.
“A big thank-you to everyone who was able to avoid the area where possible as it helped us reduce the queues of traffic and delays to journeys.
"We appreciate that closing the motorway does cause some inconvenience and only do so when we absolutely necessary to protect our workforce and road users.
“Road users will soon be able to enjoy the full benefits of the improvements to the junction which will help combat the traffic hold-ups endured at this bottleneck for many years.”
Junction 10 was closed from Friday night until 1.30am on Monday to enable the south bridge to be removed.
A fleet of machines swept on to the site to ‘nibble’ away the bridge before the road was cleared and then reopened to traffic.
There was an ‘up and over’ diversion for traffic which left the motorway at junction 10, travelled over the roundabout and then re-joined the M6 on the other side.
The existing north bridge is due to be demolished within a few weeks.
The two new bridges were built alongside the existing ones and will double the number of traffic lanes around the junction from two to four.
National Highways has also confirmed overnight closures are needed until Friday, May 20.
Throughout Monday and Tuesday, several sections of the junction will be closed from 9pm to 5am, and from Wednesday until Monday, May 16 from 9pm to 5am, several sections will be closed including the A454 (Black Country Route) eastbound on the approach to the junction 10 roundabout.
A National Highways spokesman said: “We’re moving our resurfacing works to the north side of the M6 junction 10 roundabout to raise the existing road surface up to the level of the new north bridge.
“These works will start on Monday, May 9 and require overnight closures until Friday, May 20.”
The diversion for traffic wishing to join the M6 northbound or southbound is the Black Country Route to Black Country New Road and across to M6 Junction 9.
Traffic from A454 Wolverhampton Road westbound will be able to join the M6 southbound but not the M6 northbound as the northbound entry slip road will be closed.
Traffic wishing to join the M6 northbound will be diverted to the M6 Junction 10 southbound carriageway, to exit at Junction 7 and re-join the M6 northbound.
From Monday, May 16, to Friday, May 20, from 9pm to 5am several sections of Junction 10 and approaching roads will be closed overnight.
There will be a full closure of the A454 (Black Country Route) eastbound on the approach to the Junction 10 roundabout.
Motorists will also have to deal with the full closure of the southbound exit slip road and several other diversions.
National Highways and Walsall Council, supported by the Black Country Local Enterprise Partnership, have joined forces to fund the £78 million upgrade of the junction. Contractor John Sisk & Son is carrying out the work.
For more information about the scheme and latest updates visit nationalhighways.co.uk/our-work/west-midlands/m6-junction-10-improvement
