TRAFALGAR SAILS ACROSS THE THAMES

This article reports on progress with the construction of the 86 million Dartford bridge across the river Thames. When it is completed early in 1991, it will be Europe's longest cable-stayed bridge, with a main span of 450 m, and it will relieve one of the m25's bottlenecks, the Dartford tunnel. The bridge will carry four lanes of southbound traffic, while the two tunnels will continue to carry northbound traffic. Now that parliamentary approval has been given to the bridge, good progress is being made by its constructors, Trafalgar House plc's consortium of cementation construction and Cleveland bridge & engineering. Although the design of the bridge has taken longer than expected and is only now being completed, there have already been six months of construction. The most difficult problem so far has been the design of the two main piers, so that they can absorb the impact of an off-course ship; it has been very time consuming to resolve. The transport of the two reinforced concrete caissons of the bridge from Rotterdam will be one of the highlights. Each stage of construction on both sides of the river is planned to move towards the centre of the bridge. (TRRL)