Highways England provide the latest situation on the bridge repairs.
We reopened an additional lane on Sunday 8 November.
The road layout has been changed, and lanes 1 and 2, heading east over the A52
Clifton Bridge, are running.
New signage is in place and we urge our customers to take extra care and follow this.
As well as working to repair Clifton Bridge, we have been conducting a thorough investigation of the whole structure.
These investigations have found that additional repairs are needed, and that our work is likely to continue into autumn 2021.
We appreciate that the roadworks are disruptive, and we would like to assure you that we’ll do all we can to complete the works sooner.
What we have done
This is a large and intensely complex project, which has required specialists to work in a challenging environment.
The repair involves fitting new steel cables on the exterior of the bridge, as well as replacing the steel and concrete we removed during our investigations inside the structure.
Doing this will strengthen the structure and, because the new cables are on the outside, will allow for easier maintenance of the bridge in the future.
We’re committed to keeping traffic moving while we carry out the essential repairs, and the extra capacity created by opening an additional lane on the bridge will improve journey times for motorists.
So we can continue to work safely, two of the four lanes on the B679 Clifton Lane will remain closed until our work is finished beneath this section of the bridge. Our teams are working as hard as they can to get the job done as quickly and as safely as possible.
We’re continuing to work with local partners to keep the city moving. In this newsletter, you will see that we are helping to promote Nottingham City Council’s Workplace Travel Service and we are also working closely with Nottinghamshire County Council, the nearby District Councils and the Emergency Services to keep traffic moving.
Customers living nearby
As we approached reopening the additional lane, it was vital for us to work longer hours, including working through the night.
We do understand the impact that night working has on local residents, and it is something we only do after careful consideration. We are sorry if the overnight work on Clifton Bridge caused any disruption.
The increase to working hours on the bridge during October allowed us to reopen an additional lane, doubling the eastbound capacity over Clifton Bridge.
There will be some further occasional overnight work and we may have to close the bridge again to carry out repair work. We will be in touch before we close the bridge so people can plan their journeys accordingly.
Who is doing the work?
This intensely complex project has required specialised engineers. Our contractor, VSL Bouygues, is internationally known for this type of work, through its subsidiaries in 35 different countries.
VSL’s most prestigious UK project was the Queensferry Crossing over the Firth of Forth, completed in 2017. The company’s engineers were uniquely skilled to fit the 21,000 strands of cable needed to support the 2.7 km long bridge.
We were able to help Nottingham Outlaws Rugby League club, by basing our offices and site compound at their Lenton Lane stadium. When they stopped playing because of Covid-19 we took over their lease, providing some much- needed financial support to the club.
We also resurfaced their car park and improved their club house facilities.
Now that the first phase of our work on Clifton Bridge is complete, we
will soon be able to withdraw from their stadium, handing back much improved facilities to the club.
