M6 Junction 10 Improvement Works

The M6 junction 10 is well known for its congestion and traffic delays during peak times which affects the local communities within the West Midlands and wider region.  

To reduce these issues, improvements to the junction and adjoining roads; A454 Wolverhampton Road, Bloxwich Lane, A454 Black Country Route and B4464 Wolverhampton Road West, have been underway. Upgrades include bridges being replaced to increase the road to four lanes, transforming the formerly congested motorway and helping to reduce traffic.

By replacing the bridges and conducting further improvements, this will reduce journey times for thousands of drivers and avoid potentially disruptive maintenance work in the future.

MGF were introduced to the project through contractor PL Infrastructure, who have worked alongside MGF in the past. Their familiarity and confidence with MGF equipment and product quality resulted in a project win.

The final decision was to upgrade through the construction of two new 4-lane bridges instead of expanding two of the existing 2-lane bridges, made this an interesting scheme to support. This was due to the resulting works plan to construct two entirely new bridges as well as the associated infrastructure works, making the project much more complex as opposed to a simpler bridge widening scheme.

To assist with the works, shoring was required for a 1200mm diameter pipe run at up to 6m deep, 1800mm wide and 97m long. For this, we supplied various Drag Boxes, Trench Boxes and Manhole Boxes. In conjunction with this, separate works involving the use of Trench Sheets and a Manhole Box, were used to create a framed cofferdam for a drive pit and a receiving pit respectively, which was to be used for horizontal pipe drilling.

The purpose of the pipe drilling was to install a new 600mm diameter concrete pipe by tunnelling 62m into the embankment of an existing bridge. To complete the solution, 900/1050 FABCO Multitest Pipe Stoppers were also supplied to the contractor.

Due to the overall complexity of working close to existing traffic, health and safety was paramount. With this in mind, Edgesafe and Ladder Access Platforms were also supplied to site.

By providing excellent customer service and turnaround time for any request, this allowed the contractor to successfully initiate this phase of the project. The lighter element of MGF kit was noted by the customer as being easy to manoeuvre, allowing for a high level of efficiency during installation.

Construction work is currently ongoing with an expected completion date of December 2021. Whilst works continue, the existing bridges will remain open to traffic until the new bridges are complete.