Re-Design Slashes Building Costs – Newark Bridge

A fresh pair of engineering eyes has delivered a new bridge for Newark that has been praised both for its slick look and cost-effective design.

Buckingham Group Contracting has been working on Phase One of the £47m Newark Southern Relief road, which will see the A1 linked to the A46.

As part of the Buckingham element, HBPW was asked to produce new engineering designs for a footbridge which is now in place across the spine road.

Partner, Jon Livesey, said: “During Buckingham’s tender they gave us the opportunity to review the original bridge designs to see if we could deliver something a little more innovative.

“We changed the bridge from a 42m square span plate girder deck on reinforced concrete abutments to a 58° skew, 30m span half through Pratt truss bridge supported on reinforced soil abutments, enabling us to take considerable cost out of the bridge’s construction.

“In addition the overall height of the structure was reduced, not only making for a more slender structure – generally considered more attractive – but also meaning less steel was required. A classic example of ‘value engineering’.”  The bridge is nearing completion and will open soon.

Work on the Southern relief road – a four-mile stretch which will link the A46 at Farndon to the A1 at Fernwood – will take just over four years to complete with Phase Two scheduled to start later this year.

It is designed to ease traffic congestion and improve journey times along the Newark bypass, by providing an alternative A46 to A1 route and a new River Devon crossing point.

The new road will also open up 278 hectares of land, adjacent to the southern edge of Newark’s built-up area, for housing and employment use. It is being funded by the Homes and Communities Agency, a public body sponsored by the Department for Communities and Local Government, developer Urban & Civic, Newark and Sherwood District Council, and the D2N2 Local Enterprise Partnership.