Refurbishment of Middleton Road Bridge, Oldham, UK Available to Purchase

Middleton Road Bridge carries the dual carriageway A627 Oldham Way over the A669 Middleton Road, to the west of Oldham town centre in Greater Manchester, UK. The bridge, built in 1980, is a three-span structure with spans of 16.859 m, 24.077 m and 15.479 m, with a skew of approximately 35°. The precast prestressed concrete beam suspended centre span is supported on half-joints built into cantilevers from the in situ concrete side-spans. There are spread foundations with bankseat abutments and circular columns that are pinned to the deck through pot bearings. The bridge experienced significant unplanned movement, together with deterioration to joints, concrete spalling and reinforcement corrosion. Of the schemes considered by Transport for Greater Manchester, refurbishment of the bridge was ranked as the highest priority in 2016. This paper describes the likely original design assumptions, the observed defects, investigations and diagnoses of the causes of these defects, remedial and refurbishment works design, constraints to the works, construction issues and their resolution. The cost of the refurbishment works was £1 312 957.14 and the work was completed in November 2018.