Works on the Highways England project began with a series of night closures, in the middle of September 2020, with a VolkerLaser team completing enabling works to ensure subsequent weekend closures could go ahead as planned. The main scope of works during these closures involved; plaining off 2,000m² of the old road surface on the eastbound carriageway, and 1,900m² on the westbound carriageway.

The first full weekend closure comprised the team, led by operations manager Richard Weeks, delivering complete refurbishment works to the westbound carriageway deck. Works included; waterproofing, installation of buried joints, new kerbs and asphalt application. The following weekend closure saw the team complete the same scope of works to the eastbound carriageway. Despite the tight schedule in place to complete the first phase of the project, the works were completed on time, meaning the contingency weekends put in place were no longer needed, and works were able to progress as planned, much to the delight of the client - Kier Highways.

With the works during the weekend closures taking place throughout both day and night, VolkerLaser was tasked with ensuring the works stayed under an average of 65 decibels, in order to minimise the disruption to nearby residential properties. To ensure this was possible, acoustic barriers were installed on the road bridge to reduce noise, with a representative from the local council on site to measure sound levels over an extended period of time. Successful in their activities, the team delivered the works, whilst staying below the required noise levels, allowing the project to continue smoothly and to schedule.

VolkerLaser operations manager Richard Weeks, said: “We are delighted with how the project has gone so far. The team has been excellent during the two full weekend closures, and especially with how successful the acoustic barriers were.”

On Friday 2 October, works continued with the installation of narrow lanes to the east and west bridge decks. Following this, works are set to continue for around 6-8 weeks on the central reservation work, with the narrow lanes allowing the road to stay open to the public.

Works on the £1m project are set to continue until the end of November 2020.