D-Drill Contracted To Demolish M4 Bridge Wing Walls

12 September 2008

Diamond drilling, sawing and demolition specialist, D-Drill, has recently completed a contract for the M4 motorway widening project at Cardiff Gate. Contracted by project leaders Carillion, D-Drill was brought in to cut the abutments at Rhymney and Rhydry bridges in preparation for the widening of the bridges, to accommodate a third motorway lane.

These bridges are part of an expansion project where 2 lanes will become 3 to ease traffic congestion at peak times. D-Drill cut bridge abutments of 470mm and 600mm thicknesses using wall saws over a length of 16 metres, where panels 1 metre wide by 2 metres high were cut, allowing the structure underneath the bridge to be widened in order to hold the extra lane running above.

Julie White, D-Drill’s Managing Director commented, “This was a relatively short but important project for us. It took less than 2 weeks to complete work on the eastbound carriageway at Rhymney and Rhydry bridges using two and four man teams. The main emphasis for us and Alfred McAlpine (now Carillion) at the time was to ensure minimal disruption to the surrounding roads and reduce the impact on local traffic, this was achieved by using a well trained crew and the latest state of the art equipment.

D-Drill, known for its 40 years of service in providing diamond drilling and sawing and robotic demolition, was an obvious choice for this stage of the contract. Julie continued, “Some areas had restricted access and needed careful planning. The use of wire saws on this project was key to getting the job done quickly; due to the nature of the contract there was very little space to operate the wire saw. D-Drill modified the rig for the wire saw especially for this job to allow the rig to fit the restricted column height. D-Drill’s vast experience in this field was an obvious advantage; many contracts have been carried out using wire sawing techniques making the removal of large areas of concrete quick and clean.

The overall M4 motorway widening project involves widening 13.5km (8 miles) of existing dual two lane motorway to dual three-lane motorway from Junction 29 to 32 to the north of Cardiff. D-Drill is contracted to work on the westbound carriageway scheduled for later in the year with overall completion scheduled for December 2009. The additional capacity is predicted to meet traffic growth for at least the next 15 years and is part of the Welsh Assembly’s programme to improve transportation in south-east Wales.

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