Bridging the Tees

Cleveland Bridge has nearly reached the halfway stage on its Surtees Bridge replacement project near Darlington.

The £3.3M contract, awarded by the Highways Agency, involves Cleveland Bridge supplying, fabricating and erecting 2,000t of steelwork for a new 150m-long twin three lane bridge to carry the A66 over the River Tees.

Ben Robinson, Project Manager for Cleveland Bridge said the job has two phases. “The first part will be completed in October and involves the erection of the south bridge deck,” he explained. The second phase, the erection of the north deck will be carried out during Spring 2007.

The bridge is nine girders wide, with each longitudinal girder split into five individual pieces with the longest part at 33m-long.

“We are currently delivering sections to the bridge and this involves several 150t loads at 55m long and 5m wide being transported,” Mr Robinson said.

Throughout the project main contractor Edmund Nuttall is keeping two lanes open to traffic in both directions employing contraflows. The new Surtees Bridge is scheduled to open in Summer 2007.