National Highways’ Ouse Bridge joint replacement set to be ‘demanding’ job

National Highways this week revealed that works on the bridge which carries the M62 between junctions 36 (Goole) and 37 (Howden) in East Riding will last at least another year. During this time it will work with its Scheme Delivery Framework partners – Jacobs on design, Winvic, Amey and Premier Roadmarkings on construction – to devise, organise and carry out replacement methods for all eight joints across all six lanes.

It promises to be a complex process. Bridge specialist Bill Harvey was one of the RDL Engineering workers that aided in the installation of the specialised Maurer joints in 1975-76 and recalls that “they were a pig to get in”.

As it crosses the River Ouse, the bridge has three approximately 80m spans and two approximately 60m side spans, with girders continuous over that length and 10m beyond the piers. There are two half-joints on either side of the river spans where the expansion accumulates. The approach viaducts are 39m spans and have rotation-only bearings at the abutments, which allow for movement. These were replaced between 2018 and 2020, according to National Highways.

From the crown of the curve to the abutments is approximately 700m on one side and 600m on the other, and all the drainage is carried on the deck to “enormous” gullies behind the abutments. “That’s a lot of water and it has to be contained by the joints,” Harvey said. The joints span the full width of the carriageway, approximately 16m. They have turned-up ends to contain the water.

The half joints are Maurer D480s. These are the biggest of the joints on the bridge, which leaves vertical space at a premium, according to Harvey. “If you start with a 2m deep girder and take out say 150mm for the bearings and maybe 200mm for the expansion joint there is only about 800mm left,” he added.

“The original design had simply supported transverse beams to support the joints, but late on it was decided they weren’t stiff enough and we had to cut letter boxes through the main girder web and install plates to make them continuous,” Harvey recalled. “I suspect that the stiffness was still lacking compared to what the Maurer joint was designed for.”

He added: “The joint is a set of transverse I beams with rubber seals between. They are supported on sets of stub beams spanning the opening and linked together so the movement is shared equally across the seals.

“Those stub beams need supports too. They all fit in a triangular case and there was only 50mm of concrete below the case.” National Highways says these cases are installed into the reinforced deck and have studs projecting into the deck to fix them in place. They were refurbished and modified in 2001.

“So altogether a very demanding install and a very demanding working environment,” Harvey says. “For sure there is relative displacement between the girders which must make the joint work pretty hard.”

National Highways head of scheme delivery Yorkshire and North East David Wheatley agrees, saying that “the deck is lively”.

“The vibration from the traffic and beam displacement under live loading will have to be accounted for in the design, plus we have the issue of keeping the traffic running on the M62 in both directions to required capacity during the works,” he added.

The logistical challenge of keeping the M62 running during all of this work is one of the most difficult elements of the process. A complex traffic management system is already in place, Wheatley says. “The first stage was to implement heavy traffic management, enabling full access to the eastbound half joints while maintaining the necessary capacity for the traffic on the M62,” he explains. It involves “a contraflow on the westbound carriageway, with two lanes for traffic in each direction along with a single traffic lane on the eastbound bridge deck for traffic exiting at junction 37, encompassing a temporary bridging system across the old joint.”

Explaining the next stages, Wheatley said: “Working in collaboration with our Scheme Delivery Framework designers and contractors, design and build teams have been established to develop and construct the temporary works and replace the eastbound half joints for the end of March 2023. This includes the development, fabrication and installation of a specialist bridging system, enabling traffic to exit at junction 37 during the construction of the new joint.

“The learning and collaborative planning from the installation of the two eastbound half joints will be used to finalise the techniques and systems for replacing the westbound half joints and all four of the abutment joints in 2023-24.

“In replacing these joints, the solution being developed with our specialist suppliers will enable future maintenance and replacement of the joint in modular sections, rather than the current situation where the hard shoulder and all three lanes have to be replaced as a single unit, providing greater network resilience for future traffic levels.”

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