General Chat

a lorry ran into a bridge on the M20 near Maidstone causing the bridge to collapse - surprisingly only one person injured - not seriously - broken ribs, and a lot of near misses

Well, there's a good,sturdy bridge!

Highways England said earlier that the motorway would be shut for at least 24 hours, possibly longer.

Photos on a local online paper shows that half of the pedestrian bridge had collapsed with traffic still passing underneath the 'hanging' section.

Apparently a low-loader carrying 2 diggers or similar, for some reason hit the bridge. There's been a suggestion the driver went onto the hard shoulder to avoid (undisclosed) debris in the carriageway.
A motor cyclist ended up Injured after having to take avoiding action when the bridge started to fall down.

We're already planning another route to a destination tomorrow taking into consideration the knock on effects.

Latest news - the M20 is due to reopen about midday.

Now 6pm earliest, according to the 12pm news on R2.

Given the ease in which the bridge fell down I wonder if the fact it was under some sort of maintenance which was a contributory factor. I know that sometimes the deck is jacked up off its supports so that the expansion bearings can be serviced. If this was the case then just a small tap might have been enough to send it flying.

Difficult to say. Locals say that work had recently been done, but it was to raise the sides to stop pedestrians throwing things or themselves onto the carriage way.

We travelled westbound on the M25 late this morning. The queues on the eastbound carriageway stretched from Dartford Jct 3 all the way back to Jct 8.

According to on-line road reports at 17.30, there were still M25 slow moving queues eastbound wanting to join the M20/M26 at Jct 5, a stretch of clear road then clogging up again at Swanley Jct 3 which is also a Junction for the M20.

We came home across country. It may have taken longer, but better than being stuck in a Jam!

Circumstances meant that my daughter and I were late setting off yesterday bound for London so luckily we were not on the M20 when the bridge fell. We had to divert to M2, but met no problems with traffic jams because of extra traffic.

We were thankful not to have been in the wrong place at the wrong time and so be caught up in long delays,,, or worse.

That was fortunate Gwyn.

We did find that the A2 had more traffic than usual yesterday even taking into consideration the long weekend. People do forget that road closures on major routes have knock on effects miles away from the cause.

Travellers using the M25 westbound would normally expect to peel off down the M26 junctions. Instead they were funnelled to the one with the A2 involving a roundabout, 2 lanes & 2 sets of traffic lights.

Sometimes the information boards help by sending out the closure info far and wide. We were on the M27 North of Southampton area yesterday and the warnings re the closures were on the info boards there, also warning of congestion on the M25. Quite a long way away.

"Well, there's a good,sturdy bridge!"

Road and rail bridges are built to support dynamic vertical loading not sudden horizontal impact into their supports. I hate to think what the cost would be of re-engineering thousands of bridges carrying footpaths, bridleways and country lanes over motorways so as to resist idiots driving HGVs. Not to mention the closure time ... it won't happen.

As police patrols diminish all sorts of bad and dangerous driving is getting to be quite common. One of these poor methods of driving is to go down the hard shoulder which is seen as ok by many if you feel you are in a hurry.... hunting for a pokemon or need a pee or just late. Definitely a bad choice if you have a JCB on the flatbed and have forgotten the overall clearance needed. The A20 driver will be getting a big fine and at least 6 points on his licence.

This is not the first accident involving an HGV with JCB cargo striking a bridge but def. the most spectacular. There are of course other roads in Kent as well as the M2 M20 M25 and so on ... some will even take you into Dover but most people seem unable to get their satnav to use an alt route.

If the driver carrying the JCB is deemed to be responsible then he, or his Insurance Company will also get the bill for repairing the bridge, and, it won't come cheap either.

Even a minor skirmish with a reservation barrier on the motorway costs you big time. Around a £1,000 per metre is what it costs you or your insurance to get it repaired.

The largest ever motor insurance claim was the guy who dozed off on the M62 and crashed down the embankment onto the railway line at Great Heck, causing a major rail collision. He got five years at HM's pleasure and his insurance ended up paying out over £22 Million.....!

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/232062347465


Andy

Andrew - that's funny :-D :-D

Look like the listing has gone.

How do you get a digger on a flatbed?

One theory that I have read is that the driver swerved to avoid some debris in the road which may well have come off the bridge already.

If that was the case he had to decide whether to take a knock on his vehicle or risk a blow out in one of his tyres. Should it be the front one it could have meant twenty odd tons of vehicle slewing across three lines of traffic out of control.

you can creep up behind the JCB and shout suddenly at it so that it jumps onto the flatbed and is quickly chained down before it escapes.
alternatively coax it up the ramps carried by such transporters which also have chain points which prevent it falling off in emergencies.

the video shows a classic case of bad driving
reported incidents of debris falling onto the motorway from decrepit bridges for 5 years up to 2015: nil (this figure excludes morons throwing bricks, breeze blocks etc)

The M20 is to close this weekend to allow for the safe removal of the other half of the bridge.

Plan your journey accordingly and remember that there will be knock on effects on other major routes.

As its the last weekend before most English/Welsh schools start their new term, there could be quite a lot of holiday traffic.

............There was a lot of holiday traffic also what appeared to be students and all their belongings !!

Not sure which roads we travelled yesterday, but detoured near Tonbridge on our journey from Channel coast to north Hampshire. Daughter was driving and there were long queues to leave the M20 both near Maidstone and later.

We returned by a different route after M25 and near Canterbury. Difficult to compare these though, as it was late at night.

Threat of problems this end of M20 this coming week if the French blockade ports their side.

Oh the joys of living in the south east corner...........