Burdon Road Bridge

Project Overview

As part of the demolition of Sunderland Civic Centre, we undertook the remote demolition of Burdon Road Bridge. This required full traffic management, including diversions for vehicles and pedestrians.

Challenges

The remote demolition of Burdon Road Bridge presented several challenges. Comprehensive traffic management was essential to ensure the safety of both vehicular and pedestrian traffic. Additionally, the demolition process required meticulous planning and coordination to manage the exclusion zone and the use of heavy machinery.

Safety and Sustainability

An exclusion zone was enforced during the remote demolition to protect operatives from being too close to the bridge while it was demolished. Two excavators were placed on either side of the bridge deck, following instructions given by the Site Projects Manager during the site pre-start Health & Safety briefing. The plant operators used pulveriser attachments to break down the concrete bridge deck on both sides simultaneously, reducing the weight suspended by the main pre-tensioned cables supporting the bridge span. The pulverised material dropped directly onto the stone spread across the track mats, protecting the road surface.

Once the two side elevations of the bridge deck were removed, the excavators moved into position to pulverise the surrounding concrete, leaving the main cables intact. As the post-tensioned cables running through the bridge span were exposed, they were severed and held in place using the pulveriser attachment until the stress in the cable was spent. The western section of the bridge that remained came to rest within the site boundary onto the stairwell leading from the main courtyard. Any sections of bridge decking left on ground level were broken apart to separate concrete from any reinforcement or tensioning cables. As work continued on processing the main span of the bridge deck, sections of decking at either end of the footbridge were broken apart, leaving the abutments intact. Once the materials from the bridge deck had been processed and removed from the working area, one excavator fitted with a breaker attachment reduced the west side planting arrangement that runs directly parallel to Burdon Road.

Summary

Following the safe completion of the work, the demolition arisings and hardcore materials generated were loaded into wagons and sent to the materials processing area. The road was swept clean, and the area was inspected by our Project Manager. It was signed off by the Sunderland City Council Highways and reopened to the public within the specified 5-day time frame.