NEW Bridge FAILURE!! It's Falling Apart And No One Seems To Be Fixing It - A14 Cambridgeshire
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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 9 ก.พ. 2025
- #infrastructure #roads #cambridgeshire #a14
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In terms of road infrastructure, the A14 and Brampton Viaduct or bridge is brand new having only opened in 2020. It all cost 1.5 BILLION pounds!! That's Billion with a B and yet, its falling apart... is it poor workmanship, crap materials or nature just teaching us a lesson... we're not sure at the moment.
This is usually the time where everyone involved goes to great lengths to prove they're not responsible for paying to fix it.
@ukar69 Architect blames Highways Agency, builder blames Architect, we blame everyone - but that's OK as we are the ones who will have to pay to have it fixed.
Well this is quite disturbing Jon.
Salisbury cathedral is built on a marsh...
in the year 1140 ish...
..
I remember a documentary on how they supported the leaning tower of pizza...
..
They pumped in a special liquid cement under the lower side to gently push the tower to a stable angle..
..
They could do the same to the ground around the supporting pillars...of the bridge.
..
They did something similar when building cross rail in London..
..
They pumped in liquid cement into a vast number of very small horizontal piles under buildings
ust to stiffen the ground enough while they dug the tunnels...
...
There is a road in Peterborough might be the
.. A 1130 that
is very widing but all the telegraph poles are at a 80° angle due to marshes..
@@theonlywoody2shoes At some point they'll be blaming the people who took the soil samples and they'll be blaming the people who sold them the equipment. If it all comes back good then I guess they'll blame whoever made the formula on how much load it could bear etc.
The point is the blame will lie on someone so small they can't afford to impact this at all, so then all the people pointing the finger will end up paying anyway
It needs a few feasibility studies doing.
My clients are companies in the insurance sector, so I'm aware that there is a little thing called 'Construction Defect' that some of them insure against. So... they're probably the ones on the hook for this little FUBAR. Time to put up the fees a few bob!
This is a tremendously common problem on new bridges. The bridge itself sits on steel piles driven into the ground which don't move, but the embankment leading up to the bridge is made of soil, which compresses the soil beneath it causing a bit of subsistence.
The solution is probably just to wait until the soil stops compressing, and then lay an asphalt patch to smooth out the joint. I can see how it would be frustrating to a driver, but it's pretty common and unremarkable for a highways agency.
*subsidence
Spelling chequer.
@@ArthurTanner-d7s There are 3 dots on the right of your post. Click that, click Edit, correct typo, click Save.
@@ArthurTanner-d7s Reading a comment above where contractors were doing backhand deals with a farmer, putting soil in could be classed as "causing a bit of subsistence."
in the netherlands we try to avoid this by placing thousands of big bags filled with sand on the embankment, which are left up to 1 1/2 years depending on the subsurface
Brits: "We are sinking"
German engineer: "What are you sinking about?"
U-Boat crew: "We are the greatest Sinkers in Ze World!"
Hol deinen Mantel. 😂
Lol lol lol
Brits: "Spring is in the Air''
Dutch farmer. " Why should I"
Diese Kommentarsektion ist jetzt Eigentum der Bundesrepublik Deutschland.
This gentleman, who has only (not) 160 thousand subscribers - he opened the eyes of all of us who didn't know - and wouldn't have known if he hadn't told us. Now we know and I thank you on behalf of those who did not know, just as I did not know.
Thank you, Mr. John, very much indeed.
Thank you Bernard!😏
UK road infrastructure not being fixed? No! Never!
Thats a problem across the globe lol. Also ive been a contractor for the past 12 ... months, and can confirm that its not my fault, was probably the last guy.
A step approaching a bridge is very on-brand for a country that has 70mph motorways littered with potholes!
Let alone being built!
I no longer warrents of fitness or rego for my car here in NZ. If they're making me keep my car to a high standard and being fined if I don't, why are the councils and contractors not held to the same level and never held responsible for the absolute dogshit roads? It's fucking me off big time. Bent 2 rims on my nice car, $5k for a set of wheels and they're bent and chipped to all fuck because of the crap roads and crap watery tar they use now. Roads fall apart a couple months after they make them. Made cheaper I guess but then they spend fuck loads repairing them all
@@lomein2186
That’s only a problem across places that can’t afford extra for infrastructure fixes.
London doesn’t have issue like this, because they’re full of fat stacks of cash.
I mean London still have shitty stuffs and roads but not broken for sure
The bridges at Bar Hill and Cambridge Services near Swavesey are also sinking. Apparently the Highways people were meant to be monitoring the movement of the Bar Hill road bridge over the last 12 months but found out few days back that they haven't actually installed any measuring equipment. The situation is farcical.
I worked on the a14 compound site as a cleaner and everyone that worked there even the big bosses all said this was gunna happen with thd bridges sinking but they dont care
Edit - I see from one of the comments there is a suggestion from a local that the step is down onto the bridge. This would be a little more unusual than what I've described below but the general principle of differential settlement between the piles and embankment still holds. If this is the case then someone did quite a good job constructing the embankment!
Not usually one to comment, but as a Bridge Engineer I do feel qualified to offer an opinion. This is actually quite a typical issue on new builds and I would be relatively confident it is not a major issue. The bridge certainly won't fall down! The problem arises as the approaches to the bridge are built on embankments (soil) as this is much cheaper and is a perfectly safe way of taking loads that are spread out. The bridge itself however will be supported on "piles" which take the high point loads back down to solid ground. The problem is that embankments settle, especially in somewhere like the fens. There will be some "long term" settlement but most of it will occur in the few years after the bridge installs. Piles typically sink much less than embankments. This leads to a case where a "step" forms between the piled bridge and the approaches (embankment). We put an expansion joint here which has the precise impact of making sure the "step" doesn't apply any force to the bridge itself - hence the bridge should be fine. Unfortunately here the movement is higher than the expansion joint can take, hence the bad cracking and step in the carriageway. But rest assured it (almost certainly) won't collapse the bridge.
Bridge engineers have been trying to solve this problem forever, but basically there isn't a good option except spending lots more money putting piles everywhere so effectively you just have to wait, keep resurfacing the road to avoid a safety incident and then one day it'll no longer be an issue. The M25 junction at Heathrow T5 used to be a notable place for this effect - and voila, now it's been a while it is barely notable anymore - thanks I am sure to a generous layer of asphalt! Would monitoring equipment
help - well yes (engineers always love data) but it's just a waste of money if (as I suspect) this is all expected and within the bounds of prediction.
As an aside - one reason Hs2 is costing as much as it is is that a bump like this may be uncomfortable in a car, but it's downright unsafe at 200mph - hence lots of piling and/or ground improvement to avoid this issue.
Right, I just posted to say it looks like the approach ramp settling, not the bridge, and thus it's a) quite common and b) not a safety issue. Your explanation was much more thorough :-)
The bridge isn't in the fens.
So if this explanation is plausible ( which it certainly seems it is) and has often happened before ( which I can believe) - why was it not ‘expected’ and monitoring and repair not costed in to the project ( eye watering) and repairs actioned by now? Who is accountable? (no one, obviously)
Should this comment be pinned?
@@muradtalukdar4401 Or maybe piled-on?
This is just another example of how we are no longer prioritising the correct things because the calibre of people in senior decision making positions is at rock bottom.
I worked on a new bypass as an engineer for the council. One Sunday I turned up at 7am unnannounced only to find the contractor (a big one) had done a deal with the local farmer to clear out a soft spot in his field... and use that excavated material as class 6n backfill. I stopped them working for the day and told them to dig everything they'd placed back out on Monday. You'd think I asked everyone involved in the project (on the contractor side) to off their own mothers.
Don't always rush to blame the designer or the client. The private contractors are out to maximise profit and will try anything they can think off to use cheap unsuitable material if they think it won't be spotted.
That Sunday was the middle of a 13 day run where I was 12-13 hours on site and with an hour drive either end. And to this day people will complain council workers never do full hours and just mess up the roads for fun. I left (as most decent engineers do) because the lies, insults and deliberate misunderstanding from 'Joe public' gets tedious and the pay is worse than working for a dodgy contractor, especially if you are good. So everytime people moan now it makes me smile knowing they are creating a self-fulfilling prophesy with their negativity.
Great comment. Councils used to have their own works teams instead of outsourcing to contractors who in turn outsource to other contractors, which increases risks and costs.
@ Not for building £1 billion trunk roads they didn't. That has always been a 'big contractor' sort of job.
@@xxwookey the really big projects went to contract while I was working for a council but we would do a single bridge deck replacement using our own constructikn teams with the designing engineer also supervising site work at key stages. That way the guys tying rebar could shout at you if you'd designed it too close (say a congested edge beam) but also you could offer a quick but effective change on site if needed.
Now, as well as more outsourcing of construction (thinning council staff down is always seen as 'cost saving' but it is the complete opposite as you instantly add a requirement for profit with external staff) other client roles are outsourced too - private surveyors (likely ex-council that were made redundant, set up themselves, come back as a consultant charging more) and consulting engineers - who have no interest in the area, no loyalty and sometimes not even the right skillset.
We are all paying more for less these days but it's because some people moaned so loudly about stuff they didn't understand. It's crazy.
Regular inspections and QA records are critical. Ask a subby for an ITP and watch him scratch the top of his head.
@@thebrowns5337 Interesting. Where and when was this? My experience is in the UK, and that feels like a '30 years ago' sort of thing, but ICBW.
I totally agree that downsizing enormously then paying for the same services as consultants generally produces very poor value. But equally I understand why good people get fed up of working at the council and taking epic levels of abuse. We have some great people at ours, but I amazed they stick it out.
So in a similar type of area on the railway called the “chat moss” near Manchester, the railway was built on marshland using what I can only think is cork, some of the signal and OHLE posts are dug nearly 20 metres down and they’re still wonky. It’s unbelievable to me they only bored down to 13 metres to check if the earth below could carry the A14s weight.
It screams to me of lowest bidder wins, they do the checks and realise in 5 years it’ll be knackered, but no worries, we can just disband the business and no one gets to take any blame and we all run off millionaires.
This country is on its arse.
This Week:- Jon uses his prominent platform on TH-cam to try and fix a problematic platform he drives over
How do we get Jon in an actual position of power, I'd vote.
As it's a road that I use frequently (I live just off the A14 Histon exit) I watched the bridge being built, and I've driven over it many times since it was finished (for a while it was going to be the A14(M) and some signs still hint at that ... but they realised there was a lot of traffic that would use it that might not be motorway legal.
The Highways 🛣️ Agency was going to build the M14 motorway, unfortunately the coalition got in, Phillip Hammond became transport minister and cancelled the project, that’s why you now have a widened A14 instead of the proper motorway 🛣️ previously planned.
@@makingmusiconline2309 I used to live at Sawston as this was being built, I still travel to visit my son in Northstowe from Sheffield, though rarely use this now, as I have reverted back to the A1 due to M1 speed restrictions and roadworks. The A14 near Barhill was always a lottery in the past, often resembling a carpark.
@@briannewton3535you're absolutely right. That bit of road was really terrible and is pretty horrible.
As a local ( I can see the new A14 from my lounge window) may I add the following: this is not the only subsidence on the new A14 bridges - the embankments carrying the B1043 over the A14 have dropped, but there are only warning signs of the drops. Also there have been frequent night works on the area of the A14 bridge over the east coast main rail line. Local chatter is that the earthworks were put into place by Mick George Group and as soon as the road was finished Mick George sold his firm to Heidelberg Materials (Hansen), was this to avoid any comeback from bad work or shoddy materials?
There is another case of sinking on the A14: the elevated roundabout on J33 (connection with the A10, north Cambridge and Milton) has been resurfaced several times, there is a drop similar to this bridge and you can actually see the pavement on the side of the roundabout collapsing little by little.
It's just what happens to embankment bridges in the first few years after construction. The bridge is on piles and doesn't settle much, the embankments are huge earth structures and do settle more. They settle most in the first few years and then it drops off to practically nothing.
So they build the bridge, resurface the embankments periodically, and eventually the problem goes away.
The only other solution is to put piles everywhere (expensive), or to pre-load the embankment areas with a surcharge load (delays a project, as it can sometimes take years for the surcharge to take up the majority of the settlement, also this amount of earthmoving is expensive). Ultimately the cheapest option is just to resurface periodically and ignore the public whinging about it until the problem goes away.
@@insertphrasehere15 Funny thing is I have just been told by Cambridgeshire County Council staff (not officially) that the same problem will NOT occur on the new A428 (Black Cat) as all the earthworks are being rigorously inspected, apparently they were not inspected on the A14.
Some of the fen roads zip zap in the weirdest ways between village's. Why? Because there aren't straight lines that can support a normal road.... It's not like this is a new problem, it's an issue as old as road building in the fens. Soon as you hear 'fens road building' more maths and surveying is needed.
@@neothurmic3780 I don't think the new A14 is in the fens, I have found fen roads have long straights followed by 90 degree bends, they also follow the drains which are straight. They do zip zap, but up and down eg the B1040 road from Pondersbridge to Whittlesea 😀
"There's a hole in the road and the Council are looking into it" said a comedian when I was a child many years ago.
Was is Jaspar Carrot by any chance? That sounds like something he'd have said lol.
@@TalesOfWar it was used in a spoof hourly news report on pirate radio station Radio London on April Fools Day, 1 April 1967 - read by Keith Skues.
@@johnhockenhull2819 "A toilet has been stolen from Hammersmith Police station. A Police spokesman said that they were conducting an investigation but at the moment they had nothing to go on". I thank you.....
I did not expect to watch a full length video on such a mundane subject. I enjoy your narration and editing style. Subbed
A similar story to Network Rail and the bridge over the Thames south of Oxford - the embankment started to subside, so they dumped more stone ballast on top to keep the rails level, which increased the weight and therefore the subsidence, until the whole thing gave way.
Then they blamed climate change...
Political climate change = ‘not my problem!’
Climate change will have had an impact on it, with the erosion of the bank. We're getting a lot more water in places it shouldn't be (it also hasn't helped we like to build on flood plains). That's probably part of the reason this thing is sinking.
Excellent comment, made me laugh! Thank you.
There's the small matter of a century of use on NR side compared with HE's tale of woe to be fair.
So, the air done it?
Have you noticed all the lorry wheel trims and ratchet straps that have fallen from lorries as they bounce down the drop in the expansion joint? Up until the September 2024 "monitoring works" when they closed one lane for about a month there was tons of stuff that had come off lorries there. They did clear it up and they did resurface the carriageway, and it is a bit better now. Have you also noticed how many dead swans there are on that bridge too?
Weird. I drove across that bridge earlier today and thought "that's quite the bump!"
Glad its not just me thats noticed.... Give us a message next time you're up this way, we can have tea and biscuits.
That's nothing for Elly she can handle a few bumps.
Why thank you sir. How awfully decent.
@@HubNut Will you have Hobnuts (or whatever they are called) with your tea?
This reminds me of a motorway built in NZ through former swampland. Masses of money was spent to make sure it didn't immediately sink into the ground. Which it promptly did requiring even more money to rectify.
The state of the roads in England, and the amount of litter and debris that lines the verges, is pretty depressing.
We've only got ourselves to blame for that one... it's minging.
@@AutoShenanigansOurselves?? I never chuck shoite out of the window or ever have done…
It’s the a**rseholes 😮
@@AutoShenanigans Yes and no. Certainly people drop litter, but they are less likely to do it if there is no other litter around. If the state did its job and picked the damn stuff up then people would be less likely to add to it. The first sign of urban decay is littering ...
OP, try New York. Or Rome. There you will get a better idea of what bad roads in a developed country really look like.
@@I_Don_t_want_a_handle places like Japan have no litter problem (or much less on an issue) - that's not because the state pick it up, its because people don't drop it. Its a cultural problem here that its expected others will pick up litter after them. If National Highways started collecting all the rubbish on the motorways we'd all being paying more for it to be done safely, the easiest way is for people to take stuff home.
Worst I found was someone had a dump in a Macdonalds large drinks cup, put a straw in it and left it balanced on the VRS in an ERA on the M42 - there are some sick people.. it means that those of us working on technology who do clean up the areas we work in end up stopping because we don't want that in our cars when we leave site
Jon, Here's a tale for your A14 video. In 2023, Highways England did some work on the section between J9-J10. The work involved upgrading the drainage, clearing overgrown vigetation and replacing siganage. The works were done at night (between 8pm and 6am) and involved the closure of one carriage way at a time. The official diversion route from J9, was south on the A509 to the Junction with the A45, east on the A45 to Higham Ferrers and then North to Junction 10 via the A6 a journey of about 24 miles. Most of the diverted traffic, instead took a shorter route, no doubt suggested by their sat-navs of going north on the A509 into Kettering and turning onto the A6003 (old A6) to get to J10. This was most unfortunate as North Nrthamptonshire council decided to repair all the potholes on A6003 using temporary traffic lights and single lane working on the unofficial diversion route at the same time as the A14 closures were in operation. The result, most of the east side of Kettering came to a shuddering halt. Whether HE liaised with NNC is anyone's guess, they did write to all the people who lived a longside the A14 between 9 & 10 including yours truly (my home is 70metres away), with updates on progress of the works, however they didn't include a return address, so I couldn't write and tell them their diversion arrangements were complete bollox.
I remember it well...
Diversions are always ridiculous. My town has a (sort of) bypass road that nobody wants to widen. They are now building a huge housing estate but still no change to that road. When gas mains had to be renewed under the main road, the diversion route was a 20 mile loop.
That (sort of) town bypass now has a 2m (6ft 6in) width restriction.
Diversions should be onto a similar class of road as to prevent this which satnavs don't have the context to realise, follow the real diversion and all should be well enough in regards to traffic.
Many the bridges over the new A14 seem to be continually sinking.
When National Highways get around to doing something, it will be closed for years.
When they get around to fixing it the problem will have solved itself. It will have sunk so far that the junction will have evolved into a crossroads.
And all that traffic will be pushed through Huntingdon, since they removed the old railway line flyover! 🙄🤣
What do you mean by "when"? Don't mean to be grammar police, but don't you mean IF?
Seems a common theme on several bridges built to support the A14. The bridge to Connington village also has areas sinking.
And the one to Hilton too
@@Neil-l8d Is it too late to get a refund?
Sad fact of the matter is that it will take a serious accident for someone to wake up and go `we of course take this matter incredibly seriously and will learn lessons from this terrible incident and that the public can be assured that all possible measures are being dealt with` before going back to sleep again.
Hey, Kier, get back to running the country, into the ground. I know it was the past god knows how many years of conservative governments, You're all crap.
We still see five deaths a day (on average) on UK roads and the same number of serious injuries. We know a serious RTC costs a quarter of a million in emergency response, let alone ongoing healthcare costs and hit to tax/economy. And yet we don't have many road Policing units or speed cameras and we don't always punish people for wiping out others if they do so with a vehicle.
It's not just the few people in control of limited budgets that are the problem... it's the thousands of bad drivers propelling 2t lumps of metal at crazy speeds while looking at their phones and thinking they own the road. Virtually nobody is interested in road safety, least of all drivers. We all have a part to play. An empty road, no matter how bumpy, would be as safe as anything. A bumpy road where only skilled drivers were allowed would still be very safe. A bumpy road with bad drivers is as dangerous as a smooth road with bad drivers.
I thought that looked similar to the A14 bridge on the thumbnail, it’s funny that it actually is that bridge. I used to drive over it every day, and this bit of road was rather bumpy to drive over
The deck of that bridge is a jackable design where if all or part of the substructure sinks, the deck can be conveniently lifted the required amount with minimum of inconvenience.
So why haven't they done that?
They cant find the jack handle
@@princecharon once you acknowledge that there's a fault you have to deal with it. Until then it's under investigation, so of course you cannot act until there's a verdict after which you make a decision on what to do. By that time everybody responsible has retired / died/ whatever.
@@-robster-robster-🤣🤣🤣
Boys, I stole the Jack and I AINT giving it Back! Tuff, tiddies fellas. 😂
Thanks for what you do. Keep them accountable for escaping responsibility. If the structure collapses and costs lives, your video will be very important.
I drive over this bridge for work on my way to Stansted Airport, That dip is getting worse! Something definitely needs to be done about it! Great video and thanks for sharing 👍🏽 😀
It's been getting worse for a while... the cracks in the road surface were a new one for me though!
Most of the A Road / Bridleway bridges build during the A14 project all suffer similar issues. The bridge at Hilton has been fixed once and is need again!
Phew. That’s a long commute.
If you take a trip and you don't wonder at some time almost in awe how your suspension and car body managed to survive that then you are not in England.
@AutoShenanigans It makes you wonder what it will take for the authorities to take some actual action on this issue 🤔
Great video Jon, perhaps you should also go investigate the A605 Ralph Butcher Causeway bridge between Whittlesey and Stanground which was open only a few months before it started to subside, this is now covered in temporary traffic lights, making the journey time slower than the level crossing it replaced!
No way is it slower than the level crossing it replaced, even with the temporary traffic lights.
@@CoolcartingMaybe I’m getting time distortion from the infuriation of waiting!
Someone needs to set up a subscription webcam site and anyone who is signed in and watching when it collapses gets a prize.
This is the single most British response to this xD
Your bringing attention to it may help getting someone off their arse and fixing it. I know, I'm expecting way too much, but I can dream, right? Love your channel, it's wicked sweet awesome!
“You can’t predict how nature will react to our tomfoolery.” Great line!
When Jon said "I imagine it won't be long before either the bridge collapses or there's some sort of accident", I was expecting a jump cut to one or both of those things happening. A bit like that vintage ITV clip of the guy standing by the A19 saying that it was a perfectly safe road while an accident happened in real time behind him! 😀
As you know, the entire A14 project was affected by skimping. Skimping between Cambridge and Huntingdon, where some one said "Yeah, the old A603 will do at a pinch" and skimping at the junction with the M1 and M6, where they said "Yeah, one narrow lane each way'll do if we sprinkle the junction with roundabouts". A number of people died as a result.
When one looks at the perfectly reasonable layout of the Catthorpe Interchange (M1/M6/A14) and wonder why the bridges look so new considering the age of the A14 (1990's?) - there was surely just one obvious way to build out this junction when the fourth and final arm (A14) was added to the East back then? Hmmm....
I remember when Cambridge to Huntingdon had the suicide lane. The whole stretch is doomed it seems.
We can top that in Swindon. We have a bridge and road that was built in 2023 in anticipation of 'The Eastern Village' (a new housing estate outside of the A419 which itself currently forms the eastern border of Swindon). They were preparing to commence the actual building of the housing estate, but they have discovered that the unused bridge is now cracking and twisting and is potentially in danger of falling apart, so cannot now be used as planned as the access road for all the works vehicles, meaning they now have to trundle round the other way through a fully inhabited existing housing estate, all the while speeding up the growth of the many potholes in that area. To reiterate an entirely unused bridge is already falling apart after being in existence for only around a year or so, so goodness knows how much quicker it would have failed if it had actually been open to vehicles when it was first completed.
I do hope that this profoundly worrying example of engineering potentially going horribly awry is sorted ASAP. Let’s hope the relevant authorities are watching. Auto shenanigans public service channel!. Thanks Jon!
That's quite close to where I live. The ground underneath is composed very largely of glacial till left behind by the ice age. It's basically earth and gravel with sand lenses with bands of thicker gravel where the edges of glacier runoffs were. Which is another way of saying - it's a bad place to build heavy things on top of - like motorway flyovers for example. Big wide load spreading foundation platforms would be needed in many places.
That 40 zone along almost the entire old A14 is a scam too, restriction put in place during that heavy rain period. I asked why its still there and they cited a 3 year old case of aquaplaning, from a time where it was not remotely close to flooded.
I, like most other people, just ignore this 40mph signage. It's the few who don't that cause some problems. They claimed at one point that it was the wrong sort of barrier for a dual carriage way, but it looks fine, metal, and intact to me.
@@iwantagoodnameplease The original excuse was drainage and flooding danger. I don't understand why they're doing this. You want to be careful as I've seen numerous police with speed guns and some people pulled over...
It’s so stupid why it’s still 40mph Proberly trying to make us use the new road
The road is suffering from piles, or the lack of piles.
A cousin in NL is a civil engineer, and when he was extending his house he drove piles some considerable depth into the sand of Zuid Beveland. These supported a reinforced concrete framework into which foamed glass insulated blocks were inserted before being covered by a screed. Now, *that* is engineering - and just for a semi detached house.
2:25 - we lived for 17 years in Benwick, the most remote village in Cambridgeshire: you can see it 45 degrees up & to the right from your marker in the previous map.
In the Fens, a simple new house has to be piled [put on concrete stilts] down to the river bed under the peat - 40 feet in our case. The house doesn't then move - though its garden may tend to sink a bit.
The trouble is, you can't pile roads, and thousands of tons of bridge is going to be hard.
Which is why EVERY SINGLE road in the Fens as as bumpy as hell: I broke two front springs while we lived there, & I knew the dangers and drove accordingly.
Simply, the roads float on top of the peat: the trees that are allowed to grow along EVERY SINGLE non-motorway road in the fens suck the water out of the peat & it subsides, taking that part of the adjacent road surface with it. My current neighbour was driving between Ramsey & Whittlesey, hit a depression & flew off the road into the neighbouring field: he was lucky. And the roads tend to be very, very straight, with nasty bends every so often, with water courses on one side or the other. We saw the aftermath of many crashes in our area, a lot of them fatal.
It doesn't surprise me in the least that many bridges in this area suffer from exactly this sort of problem.
I live in south Lincolnshire and frequently travel along the fen roads to get to Peterborough en-route southbound.
A few months ago I noticed some odd damage to the inside edge tread of my nearside front tyre where the rubber had actually become shredded. The rest of the tyre is fine. I eventually realised what's causing the damage and it's the subsidence of the roads about 12 to 18 inches from the edge. It creates long cracks parallel to the road edge and a step up to a couple of inches in the tarmac right where the inner edge of the nearside wheels run. Of course the cracks are patched up repeatedly, but the constant shifting of the soil opens them up again.
You can pile roads (especially recommended for those that are built on embankments on soft ground). And piling under bridges is very common. I should know, I've been doing it for 35 years!
Nothing new. When some scholars got disgusted with Oxford they headed East to start their own university. They got to Ely where the Bishop offered them some safe land to build on 17 miles away. At Cambridge, which is why it isn't the University of Ely.
Seven hundred years ago.
@@sydnorth5868 well please do it in on the ones betwenn Peterborough and Ramsey - please, please, please...
@@chrismoule7242 Unfortunately that's about 10,000 miles outside the area I currently work in!
I think its about time they did something about the tramlines along the a14 around newmarket.
Don't worry, Lincolnshire can help. Off the road from Pinchbeck to Spalding there is a 5 exit traffic island and off the South West exit they have built a massive bridge heading nowhere. Free of charge buyer collect. 52 deg 48 min 06.67 N 0 deg 09 min 31.86 W. PS Love your show, channel, stuff. JM
4:58 - nice blooper at the end, Jon! It's always great to see a new video uploaded on my birthday! :D
Happy Birthday.
Nice my birthday’s this Friday
@@FirenzePisaMapping Happy birthday in advance. May I ask the origin of the ID name (Italian here, from Turin, and curious as hell; feel free to tell me to mind my own business!)
@@dlevi67 I’m from Firenze (Florence for those English people) and Pisa is just the airport I usually go to to travel to UK
And I make mapping vids
@@FirenzePisaMapping Grazie mille per la risposta. Saluti alla Toscana, e auguri di nuovo!
I live in Brampton myself. It never would have occured to me that the bridge was sinking. I was wondering whether something similar is happening to another bridge nearby. One that takes the B1043 over the A14 when you're coming from buckden Into Godmanchester. There's a definite ramp in the road surface on a road that is national speed limit. If you don't slow down it gives you an almighty jolt
Coming after the farce of the earlier A14 viaduct over Huntingdon station and its temporary steel bracing that had to be demolished this shows engineers are still overestimating the strength of their structures in this area.
A number of years ago I was delivering some plant machinery to a newly acquired building site..
..
Along the back wall they'd installed some concrete piles about 10/20ft deep...
For a retaining wall.
According to the architect or people doing the surveying..
..
Anyways the wall started to collapse.
Apparently the ground was really soft (near coastline)
and the piles had to be 30/40 ft deep..
The whole thing had to be re piled..
To think, Britain used to build bridges designed to handle 10x the expected load for redundancy purposes.
160K by Sunday upload. Moving in the right direction. You're doing a good job
WTF! 5 years old and its falling to bit??
I’ve socks that are older!
What country were the socks made in?
Wow, this is crazy! 😱 The bridge is literally falling apart and it's shocking no one is fixing it! 😳💔 Hope they address this soon before it gets worse! 🛠🚧
No wonder they finished ahead of schedule.
Forgot to do the piling work.
Quicker and cheaper! 😂
Hard hitting journalism! John does it all.
Jon, please cover the Ralph Butcher causeway bridge in Whittlesey. It was built to reduce congestion by the level crossing the A605 into Whittlesey, but maybe a year into it's unveiling they have had temporary traffic lights. It's been nearly a year, and it's an absolute mess of a situation
"Week turns into months to remedy cracks on £32m Ralph Butcher Causeway" Whittlesey
It’s been down to one lane from six months after it opened . Of course the best thing about this during winter months , is that the B1040 and North Bank are usually closed due to flooding . The back road to Benwick also being closed due to road works makes me think that the powers that be are slowly trying to block us into an overcrowded , underfunded town to fight it out to the death …… something along the old film “ Escape From New York “ .
I was also going to comment about Ralph Butcher bridge. Would have been better to keep the old level crossing open!
I was going to comment this myself, but yeah with one lane open on the causeway and the B1040/North Bank road being shut time and time again, getting to and from Whittlesey can be hell! Even though keeping/reopening level crossings open is kind of a no-no in this day and age it would have been at least beneficial to keep it open for a while rather than just close it immediately after the RBC opened.
That route was utter carnage for years during construction , lovely prospect of chaos returning when the dig it up again , oh joy
There is a bit of motorway I drive over regularly that has a rather alarming thump in it where the road is visibly subsidingon the approach to a viaduct. I have seen no evidence of anyone doing anything about it. My assumption is these things will be put off due to costs until a bridge collapses at which point the government will panic and end up spending 10 times as much to fix them all.
Gateshead has just entered the chat.
"My assumption is these things will be put off due to costs until a bridge collapses"
Why do you assume that? When was the last time that happened?
@@beeble2003 Genoa, 2018, comes to mind immediately
Same with this train bridge in Branston
Your reporting is a beacon of hope in an otherwise bleak and dreary world.
Except that he doesn't really understand what he's seeing, so is spreading misinfomation about a 'dangerous sinking bridge', when what we actually have is a a typical case of abutment settlement. Annoying, and possibly indicative of insufficient attention paid to construction detail (like fill type and compaction), but not dangerous.
Your harsh criticism is a lighthouse in these dark and aimless times.
OMG, I knew there was a site I’d missed from my investigations. Thanks for reminding me. I’ll get the report sent to highways England as soon as possible. My bad LOL.
We definitely need more of this type of study done. Well done mate, keep up the excellent work.
We have two bridges near Kendal that were closed 12 months ago, one has been reopened to light traffic in the last few weeks but there hasn’t been a word on the second one which is bigger and passes over a main bypass of the town. Ironically, the council are spending millions of pounds building flood defences in the town centre, and it’s been over five years of disruption and annoyance for everyone using the town.
Should have used Irn-Bru in the construction.
No, that's the whole problem. The Scots nicked all the girders to make the Irn-Bru 😂
That bridge caused me untold misery driving from Northamptonshire to Brampton, and Brampton to Sheffield when it was being built.
Certifiable "Ahhh sh*t, here we go again" moment.
I moved from Huntingdon just over a year ago, years and suffered years of disruptions.
But once opened it was a blessing...shame they didnt get it right as this bridge took ages to construct and without it A14 traffic is screwed!
There has been excessive flooding in the past 4 or 5 years in the area which could have saturated deep into the ground aiding the subsidence.
Ohh and i press the button specifically for that 👍
Well... they did built most of it on a flood plain so....
I understand from a friend who lives in Brampton that there is a big argument about the construction of the drainage and balancing lakes they built close to this bridge.
I used to work with bridge inspectors quite often. One particular newly built motorway bridge had the bearings on which it sits installed upside down. The whole bridge had to be jacked up whilst they put new bearings in.
Just waiting for "lesson`s will be learnt"
Its really good that your documenting this. Cause if something happens, we absolutely 100% need some accountability in the government for corporate manslaughter charges with neglection
I remember just before it opened the local news did a feature on it, the reporter did the interview on the bridge, no traffic or workers but she was wearing full safety gear including eye protection. Maybe they knew something was going to happen? 😂
6 point PPE is pretty well standard regulation for anyone working on or visiting a site, even if construction is winding down.
@malphadour it was finished, ready to open.
As a local I would add that all the bridges have suffered from subsidence, the b1040 being repaired at least 3 times, and the matchstick forest 😢
As you mentioned, a certain amount of settlement is always expected. Some of that happens quickly and some could take a couple years. I couldn’t tell if it was the bridge or the approach embankment that has settled. But as long as the long term settlement has stopped, this can be fixed fairly easily.
Building heavy infrastructure over a bog is always a challenge. When I worked on the railway I saw a film showing a train traversing a section of track built on marsh land. The rails lowered in advance of the train and raised slowly after it left so the full travel was not obvious. When they placed a camera on solid ground they found the track was going down by a full metre!
i saw a video
railway line built for 1000 ton trains nice and level
in 50 years the field about 3 m 12 foot lower
the farmer looking up as trains go by
proves how much it had settled because of ground water use
Whilst it's nowhere near me in Devon it's fantastic that you do these videos. Great stuff my dude as always!
Had similar settlement issues on a new bridge over railway lines on a bypass in Weedon (just off the A5). This happened within 2 years of the road opening. The bridge 'settled' and there was one hell of a bump when joining the embankment. They came and regraded the road on the embankment and all has been well for the last year.
I appreciate the straight to the point thumbnail.
In Durham City there two bridges, Framwellgate and Elvet bridges, which were built in the 12th century. For nearly a hundred years they had motor vehicles travelling across them and the only repairs required were to the road surface. In the late 60's a new bridge was built across the Wear to divert traffic from the city centre. Less than thirty years later it had to closed for almost a year to virtually rebuild it! What did the Normans know that we appear to have forgotten?
But don't forget your MOT every 12 months to make sure your car is roadworthy 😡
Haha😅
Or should it be are the roads car worthy?
@@daz1975ify Given how much bigger and heavier most newer vehicles are, it's not really a shock the roads are falling apart.l
It needs to be extremely roadworthy to survive British roads!
Having been over it about a month ago I'd say its a good test of the dampers certainly!
Bridge engineer here; there are ‘settlement slabs’ at either end, extending out several metres away from the abutment, to deal with this issue. Most designs now have the slab resting on the abutment. Appears that this one is not! It can be raised by pumping grout under it. Expensive.
We had this type of failure on multiple bridge projects in BC, It seems the engineers decided the at "structural" foam blocking was a good use to do the infill by the abutments, this lasted about 2-3 years until the traffic (large trucks) compressed the foam causing a dip, when the trucks hit the dip it would cause a ripple effect causing the foam to disintegrate and causing the road to dip even more... the solution was yes fill it in with more asphalt. This didn't work as they were back every 4-5 months. The final solution was to close half the bridge, excavate, actually fix the problem, then close the other half and fix.
Some of the oldest roads in the Fens are built on bundles of willow withies which are preserved in the waterlogged peat and clay. Sadly they have been incrementally widened to modern standards such that the edges are off the raft. Consequently, the edges routinely slough off under the weight of the 40tonne+ lorries.
Love your videos mate! always look forward to them!
I live in this area and was here for the whole upgrade, several of the bridges are sinking, for example the B1040 bridge which passes over the new A14, massive ramp on the approach now. The "old" A14 was renamed the A1307 and should have been amazing, still dual carriageway and now not a through road, but its been stuck at 40mph for no apparent reason since the works completed, something about flooding or barriers which wasn't a problem when it was the A14 and people went down there at 80+. The fens are a tough area for roads, some of the roads further north from here are unreal, like a rollercoaster with the subsidence, people get yeeted off them into drainage dykes all the time.
Whilst crap road surfaces, there's nothing like a drive across the fens to make you feel alive. Until you're in a upside down in a ditch.
Fully agree about that dip on the J24 bridge, it’s ridiculous. As for the A1307- the 40mph restriction is because the barrier is well past its sell by date. Cambs Highways took responsibility of it last year but are too cash strapped to renew it. It’s taken a fair few slaps, particularly on the Huntingdon to St Ives stretch to add to its woes.
The M11 is suffering from the same issue. J13-12 now has a 40mph restriction as bits of its central barrier are wafer thin after years of corrosion. There’s also a scheme starting this year to re construct the bank around Girton and fix the leaning lamp posts.
@@AutoShenanigans: Roads across the Somerset Levels are similar; they’re floating on the rafts on the peat, so the bumps move as the ditches fill or drain down.
Interesting vlog … made even more so because Ive just seen my husband driving along in the traffic in his red truck xx
This is everywhere, look what they do in new builds . Ridiculous
About a mile from me is a roundabout, it was put into a strech of ordinary main road to make a junction to a small enterprise park. The local farmer told the workers (and enyone else who would listen) that there was a spring in the field next to the road that drained away under the main road itself.
There was even a pipe under the original road so the water wouldn't go over the top and freeze every winter.
Noone listened of course and the farmer was even told by someone in a hut, that it wouldn't be a problem, as any water would just go into the drainage system that was put in, at the time of building the roundabout.
Now of course every time it is wet, the water runs across on TOP of the road (down the camber) too the roundabout. It even freezes when it is wet in the day, then very cold at night. So good luck going round the roundabout in winter, when you can't see the wet, shiny patch of ice.
But then, what do farmers know about building roads and roundabouts, they only know stuff about their land don't they?
Oh wow! This fills me with confidence that the bridges on the new Black cat to Caxton gibbet (about 10 miles southerly) will be of the highest of qualities!!
I doubt it'll be finished before 2030, they seem to be working on that part time and at a snails pace.
Sadly the contractors working on the A428 scheme have to put up with abuse about the A14 scheme when it wasn't anything to do with them!
Yes! Well done John. This road is local to me too and that entire interchange has been a waste of time. They are now planning to build houses on the North East quarter of Brampton Hut which the locals know well as a flood area. But thank god the speed limit was imposed, that will save the bridge, heavy vehicles spending longer on it!
It's not just the bridge, the entire section of A1 is sinking, especially northbound from Buckden. The raised A141/A14 "Woodley" roundabouts are also sinking.
Also, for over 3 years now, the people of St Ives have been unable to leave their homes due to being cut off from the A14. Someone should save them...
I recall a similar situation during the Summer of 2017, on the A6 at Desborough, in Northamptonshire. The approach to the bridge over the Midland Mainline was sinking so the Highways Dept decided to investigate. They had to instigate an emergency road closure, as there were voids of several cubic metres under the road.
The A14 is a difficult one, there is no alternative route, the A421 upgrade from Black Cat to Caxton Gibbet is still 2 years away from completion. Now that is also an expensive road, 10 miles at a cost of £1 Billion.
Hey Jon, every single new bridge they built as part of this project has the same issue. Each of the expansion joins has a massive dip.
They have "fixed" bar hill recently, but swavesey, fenstanton, Hilton, godmanchester, offord and the Brampton hut access bridge are all fooked!!
I liked this. This feels like a proper use of social media. Well done
the only time they (the council) will act is when the bridge says ''nuff of this bollox, i'm out'' and a few people get a sudden appointment with Mr G.Reaper & The Hon. St.Peter of Pearly Gates
They will cross the River when it comes to it...
Great to see that we are on it.
I live near this bridge and i can assure you the the 1.5 billion was not well spent as its still awful to drive on.
Bar Hill needed a second bridge. Couldn't move when A14 backed up. Happy memories!
The same story here in the states. The four lane bridge next to my house that was built in 2007 already has both ends badly sinking and they keep adding asphalt to the cracks. The city knows and they don't have a plan. The sinking is so bad that it's pulled away the pedestrian railings
But at least they didn't waste taxpayer dollars, because they used the lowest bid to get the project done.
@@joshmyer9 I suspect they're wait till year twenty and declare the bridge in need of replacement. They will let the same company build the replacement that built the original. The subscription bridge model.
We had the same/similar thing here on the Little Clacton By-pass (A133). When it was "finished" the Bridge over the Railway line had a bump in it. it was not the bridge sinking, it was the dirt bank leading up/away from it. Eventually after constant thumping from traffic, they closed the road and rebuilt the banking. This is what happens by always going for the cheapest option.
Oh, the joys of the National Highways mess on this part of the road network. It only took CCC and highways to start fixing the mess they left the old route in this year.
I came back from Stansted on that road just this week. Noticed the 50mph signs but didn't notice any bumpiness on the transition (nothing more than expected of UK roads at least). It was 11pm though and focus was more on "Not driving into wall" and "not being blinded by oncoming traffic"
Telford and Brunel managed to (over)build things that last centuries - whilst in the 21st for "only £1.5B" you get something that doesn't even last 3 years.
Salisbury cathedral is built on a marsh.
There a small hole in the centre of the nave where there a dip stick, they measure the level of the water..as long as there's water the cathedral will remain..
However the arches in the nave soaring to the roof have a slight curve to them....
A lot of the stuff Telford and Brunel built didn't last very long either. A lot of what they built was torn down and rebuilt by another engineer within a decade in fact. Just that Telford and Brunel's names got attached to them.
(Did a price comparison but mistook shillings for pence :D Not used to pre-decimalised money :?).
Thank you for sharing this vital information - excellently articulated and presented.👏🏻
The Gateshead Flyover (A167) was closed pretty quickly when faults were found. It seems strange that they haven't closed this.
There's a train tunnel running under it so any failure could end up being far, far more catastrophic. That thing is also beyond its original designed life, it should have been replaced years ago or have a plan in place to start replacing it the second they closed it.
@@cycletyneandwearThe worst part about that flyover is the fact the council lied about doing weekly checks of it when they weren’t. It’s a good thing the pillar didn’t collapse before it was closed as the number of lawsuits against the council from families of potential victims would have been crazy
We’ve got a whole highway like this in Vancouver! The South Fraser Perimeter road was built about a dozen years ago over a bog and garbage dump, it’s been resurfaced and rebuilt in multiple spots, but most worrying of all is the Tannery Road interchange, the overpass is fine but the ramp leading up to it has sunk so much it’s actually bending the railings as they press into eachother
Like, built on a landfill? Those ALWAYS sink!!
The same thing is happening on the section of the "improved" A14 at Bar Hill and Swavesey, where two new gyratory junctions were built. The ramps carrying the slip roads up to the central concrete structure are sinking, leaving "steps" that have grown to an inch or more before Highways England put in a new layer of asphalt. Since the new road opened in 2020, this bodged "fix" has been applied twice, and will soon need to be done again.
I’ve passed under this bridge many times but I’ve never actually driven over it so I haven’t noticed the problem
You never know, one day, as you drive under it, you might suddenly be made aware :D