HBPW Leaves Its Stamp On £22m Somerset Scheme

Taunton’s impressive Firepool road bridge, designed by HBPW as part of the new £22m Northern Inner Distributor Road (NIDR), is poised to open as the wider scheme moves towards completion later this year.

The structure is one of two designed for principal contractor, Carillion plc on behalf of Somerset County Council.

HBPW Engineer, Tommy Ng, who designed Firepool, said: “It is a 110 metres long three span steel concrete composite ‘ladder deck’ bridge, which features around 350 tonnes of steel alone and crosses both the River Tone and the Bridgwater & Taunton Canal.

“Two metal beams were lowered into place at the northern end of the bridge and those alone measured 42m each with a combined weight of 100 tonnes. A special 1,000 tonne capacity crane had to be employed to hoist them into place.”

The NIDR scheme aims to ease congestion in the town centre and on Priorswood Road as well as providing access to the Firepool regeneration site where there are ambitious plans for development which could create thousands of jobs and hundreds of homes in the area.

Another part of the scheme features the 40 metre span Chip Lane Footbridge, also designed by the HBPW team and which opened last year. It is of steel Warren Truss construction and crosses both the existing railway and the new Northern Inner Distribution Road.

Chip Lane replaces an existing footbridge, however, unlike the old structure, the new one features a combined footbridge and cycle way with improved disability access thanks to the provision of wider access, ramps and stairs.

Work on the mammoth project first began towards the end of 2013. The entire scheme is scheduled to finish towards the end of this year.