Friday 13th July 2012

M4 opens again

London closure is over, but weight restrictions still in place

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The M4 Boston Manor viaduct in west London has reopened this morning, a week after it was closed for emergency repairs.

The elevated section of the M4 between junctions two and three was closed after cracks were discovered on the bridge supports on the viaduct.

It’s surely welcome news for the tens of thousands of motorists who have been hit by traffic problems as the already clogged arterial routes into and out of west London have struggled to cope with the M4’s traffic load.

With the Olympics coming up it’s also crucial that the main route between Heathrow in the west and the Olympic site in the east is clear. "The whole country wants the Olympics to be a huge success,” Shadow Transport Minister John Woodcock told BBC Breakfast, “so it is a huge relief that the road is open because of the chaos it would have caused with athletes arriving on Monday to travel to the Olympic Village".

But all is clearly not 100 per cent well; according to the highways agency heavy vehicles will still be banned from that part of the M4.

The crack was discovered during an ongoing repair programme,” said the Highways Agency in a statement. “Work on that continues and for this reason vehicles weighing 7.5 tonnes or more will still be restricted from using the motorway between the junctions. A diversion route remains in place via the A4 and A312 dual carriageways.”

So what with the continuing weight restrictions on the Hammersmith Flyover and work continuing on the M4, it does seem as if the whole thing is more of a patch-up than a full-on repair. And with large parts of our elevated road network nearing the end of their natural lives, you do begin to wonder which bit will hit problems next...

[OdramaSwimLaden]

My money is on the M4 flyover being closed for a very long time as soon as the Olympic Games has been and gone (it would have been that way anyway had that pesky workman not discovered what quite a few people knew anyway!).

[Munich]

Well at least the government gets a big road project without having to actually build a "new" road and therefore get the wrath from environmentalist and NIMBYs.

[Stig]

"The whole country wants the Olympics to be a huge success,”

Make that, the whole country -1 actually.

[hms]

For the past several months it has been limited to 7.5 tonnes, all the larger stuff diverted via the A312/A40.
I see that remaining for a long while while they apply sticking plaster and Gaffer tape!
h

[Manicminer]

rjobyr said:

-2

Why would you want the Olympics to be a failure?

[anonymous-user]

Unfortunately, patch repairs and remedial works are currently the flavour of the month with the HA. With EMAC type contracts switching to ASC's, this will only continue (as everything has to be value managaed and assessed on cost vs risk). Having worked on Area 2 (M4 and M5 in the South West) for the last 4 years, it's a similar situation with certain structures having monitoring regimes in place monthly (some weekly), and emergency works where necessary (because tbh, the average small span motorway underbridge will cost £5-10m and the diversion route would be there for 6 months).

Small concrete repairs or beam strengthening, can be achieved fairly efficiently and with a very quick turnaround. At present it's the only way to keep the motorway network going as there's not funding available from the govt to do anything substantial. The HA just doesn't have the money to be pulling down knackered, thaumasite & ASR affected structures at the moment.

My 2p worth.

[va1o]

That stretch of the M4 is just in general a failure, its had problems from day 1. Bus lane anybody?

[cliffie]

Opening it this morning made cock all difference to my daily grind round the Western Section of the M25 and I know it will only get worse.

[Max M4X WW]

cliffie said:

Opening it this morning made cock all difference to my daily grind round the Western Section of the M25 and I know it will only get worse.

That was the fault of a burnt out E65!

[drmotorsport]

Stig said:

"The whole country wants the Olympics to be a huge success,”

Make that, the whole country -1 actually.

So you actively want it to be a failure!? Well arn't you a little ray of sunshine.

[Piersman2]

I'm genuinely saddened to see it re-opened so soon.

My trek in from Reading to junction 4 has been greatly improved this week as all the traffic that would normally continue into London has had to find alternatie routes. And I have enjoyed all the people in the office who live close by having to take 2 hours to get OUT of London compared to their usual 20mins.

But then I am a miserbale, grumpy, selfish bd.

[mark3man]

I'm no great fan of the Olympics either - the arrivals should be given a train ticket at Heathrow. Specifically banned from the road unless with a black cab (who will hopefully all pay off their mortgages on the takings for the fortnight !)

[BoostMonkey]

Manicminer said:

rjobyr said:

-2

Why would you want the Olympics to be a failure?

Exactly, some of the venues are fantastic and great value for money

[monktoc]

Was on an elevated section of the M6 todayheading North, and noticed a rolling roadblock Southbound whilst some workmen quickly filled a hole in the arriageway with tar and then drove off!!! Seems to me like a very temporary repair

[burman]

So where are all those heavy Olympic buses going to go then? or are they all going to come in on minibuses?

[Manicminer]

burman, it said on the radio today that the Olympic coaches will be able to use the whole of the M4 and are exempt from the weight restrictions.

The Zil lane on the M4 will make it a nice cushy route in for them from Heathrow.

[Funkateer]

BoostMonkey said:

Manicminer said:

rjobyr said:

-2

Why would you want the Olympics to be a failure?

Exactly, some of the venues are fantastic and great value for money

I would rather they never happened in the first place, and money instead was spent on our crumbling infrastructure.

Too late now, so appreciate they need to be successful or we'll appear even worse than we are

[Sagacitas]

Funkateer said:

I would rather they never happened in the first place, and money instead was spent on our crumbling infrastructure.

Too late now, so appreciate they need to be successful or we'll appear even worse than we are

Same here. Really didn't want it happening in the UK but now that it is I hope it is a success!

[KimZ]

it's that fecking 747 they drove up it for the British Airways ad....

[tylerama]

That building you can see underneath it is (I think) the worlds biggest Audi dealership and is 5 floors tall. They have some Audi motorsport machinery on the top floor, too. A couple of Le Mans chassis, a SWB quattro and Frank Biela's 97 or 98 BTCC winning A4, iirc. It's a MASSIVE building, must have cost squillions to build.

It certainly wees all over the Merc Brentford dealership right next door, with it's tower of C and E classes tacked on the side.

I'm glad it's reopen, it took them months to do the 1000 yards of the Hammersmith flyover, but now it's sorted, it's much improved, wider lanes and new surface.
That J2 -3 section of the M4 is quite long, the raised section goes on for ages and there is some awful 2 foot long repairs about every 100 yards, even in my daily driver yaris with it's boat like suspension, it feels rough, it's awful in the golf on it's solid coilovers.