TIMELAPSE video footage released by National Highways shows the moment a temporary bridge for construction vehicles was installed across the busy A303 at Steart Hill ahead of schedule.

The new bridge will keep construction traffic off the main road, ensuring that the scheme to upgrade the road to dual carriageway between Sparkford and Ilchester will have minimal impact on drivers.

For the installation, the A303 was due to be closed in both directions – between Hazlegrove roundabout and Podimore roundabout – for a whole weekend, but thanks to a fantastic team effort, the road was back open on Saturday at 5.30pm, 35 hours ahead of schedule.

It was the first time the scheme’s construction required a full closure and thanks to the hard work of the project team and its contractors, the bridge was installed without any issues and way ahead of time.

A vital part of the scheme, the operation saw a 200-tonne crane used to lift the new bridge sections into place, which happened in the early hours of Saturday morning.

Somerset County Gazette:

As part of the preparation work, more than 2,500 letters were sent to residents along the diversion route, as well as lots of engagement with the local residents, businesses and parish councils to help minimise the impact of the closure.

Elliot Hayes, National Highways’ Senior Project Manager for the scheme, said: “As the first total closure of the scheme, we were keen for the bridge installation to go smoothly.

“Thanks to the hard work of everyone involved, the installation went seamlessly, and we were able to reopen the A303 much earlier than planned which was a fantastic result.

“Now the bridge is installed, which is vital for the progress of the earth moving operation, we’ll really be able to ramp up the work and push forward with this vital scheme that will help unlock Somerset and the South West.”

Somerset County Gazette:

The £135 million scheme between Sparkford and Ilchester will not only promote economic growth in this area of Somerset, it will also tackle a long-standing bottleneck, reduce journey times to the South West and improve traffic flows in that area at peak times and during peak seasons.

National Highways is working with delivery partners Galliford Try to deliver the scheme.

In delivering the scheme, we’re aiming to:
•    improve the capacity of the road to reduce delays and queues that occur during peak hours and at key times of the year i.e. the height of summer.
•    support economic growth, facilitating growth in jobs and housing by providing a free-flowing and reliable connection between the South East and the South West
•    make the road safer, by providing additional capacity and reducing driver stress. We’ll make routes safer for pedestrians, cyclists, horse riders in the area.
•    protect the environment and look for opportunities to improve it, minimising any unnecessary impact of the scheme on the surrounding natural and historic environment and landscape.
•    work with local communities to reduce the impact of the road on a sense of community severance, and look for ways to improve local peoples’ quality of life
•    make journey times more reliable and resilient, by providing more capacity it will become easier to manage traffic when incidents occur.