When the Clifton Bridge, outside Nottingham, underwent scheduled inspection in 2019, engineers identified some basic maintenance was required, involving drainage and basic concrete repairs. The process of carrying out those repairs on the 243-metre viaduct in 2020, however, revealed further, more serious problems once concrete was removed. With the safety of the bridge at stake, a new repair project was urgently scoped out.

National Highways programme delivery manager Richard Waterfield explains the importance of the project: “The A52 is one of the main trunk roads in our network, joining the A1 towards Grantham with the M1 at East Midlands Airport. It's a commuter route and access to the bridge is key for the city.”

With the flow of the traffic around the city compromised, fixing the bridge was clearly a major priority for all stakeholders, including Nottingham City and Nottinghamshire County Councils. “Safety is our number one priority and always will be, so we reduced capacity from five lanes down to one lane within a few days of finding the problem,” says Waterfield. “Because of that reduction in capacity, we had to work as quickly as we could to get it back to full capacity as soon as possible.”

A local resilience forum – comprising the councils, emergency services, local transport providers and other large organisations – was established to keep all local parties informed and include them in any decisions that had to be taken about the bridge and the rerouting of traffic. “We set that up from day one, to ensure that they were fully part of the conversation about what we were doing and any decisions that needed to be taken. For example, there was a slip road close by, so did we need to open it or not?” says Waterfield.

The importance of the bridge and the seriousness of its problems, required the streamlining of internal processes. “Ordinarily, we would go through stages of a project's life: initial optioneering, detailed design, pricing, mobilisation to prepare to go to work and then build the project. But the critical nature of the project meant we brought people together and overlapped different stages and phases, to enable us to deliver the project in less time. Designers worked alongside contractors to design parts of the project while something else was built. We overlapped all our working methods to bring the timeframe down as much as possible.” The result was a five-year project completed in two years.

Keeping the public informed was also important. Newsletters were distributed locally, along with engagement with local media. A website was also launched, containing details of the project, alongside any closure information and major updates, so travellers could plan their journeys and have all the information to hand.

A key takeaway from the project, Waterfield says, was the importance of inspection. “It's heartening that, in this country, we inspect our structures. We spot problems. We do something about it. We inspect robustly and maintain when required.”

What’s been the reaction to winning the CIHT Infrastructure Award? “It means a huge amount to us. The hard work, the heartache, the effort, the time that people put in – including all our partners – we did everything we could to get this project delivered in the shortest possible time. It's a real coup and there's a lot of proud people here.”

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