M6 Closed In Staffordshire Due To 'unsafe' Bridge For More Than 12 Hours

[mikey4444]

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-stoke-staffordshire-39379053

I haven't been up the M6 for years but this must have caused the mother of all traffic jams. I have a friend who is a Civil Engineer, and he says that this sort of thing will become more common in the future, as most of these bridges were built in the 60's-70's.

[Zacs-Master]

I always think that when I drive down the M1 and see the original bridges still there. Will be chaos when they try to replace them.

[mikey4444]

Zacs ....I guess that they will replace them one by one. If you are ever stuck underneath one of these old bridges and look up, it never looks very secure to me. The problem can only get worse due to the increased max loads allowed on our roads, introduced in the 80's, mostly due to pressure from the haulage industry.

[Zacs-Master]

Yeah, wait for the 82 tonne LHVs! They will be inevitable as the population grows.
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Longer_Heavier_Vehicle

[Peter Pedant]

and the emphasis ( or stress haha) in the sixties was to engineer to specification and not to over engineer like the victorians did

[bhg481]

Back in the 1960s my father-in-law was a foreman on Lancs CC. Shortly after he retired they were building a by-pass round our local town and he used to wander up the lane by his house and watch them. They were building a bridge for the lane to go over the by-pass and he told one of the workers "If you build it like that it'll fall down"; you can imagine the reaction. Anyway, after it fell down he felt quietly pleased.

[mikey4444]

This is potentially devastating. Can you imagine the complete chaos that would ensue if just one bridge on a major motorway were to collapse ?

[douglas9401]

Actual inconvenience to imagined national gridlock in half a dozen posts?

We truly are doomed.

[mikey4444]

lol Dougie....but these bridges have that capability.

[mushroom25]

//Yeah, wait for the 82 tonne LHVs! They will be inevitable as the population grows. //

not sure that they are. introduction of these road smashing monsters will change the economics of the haulage industry and will cause the death of rail freight in the UK. is the UK public going to be accepting of the massive increase in road traffic this will cause?