Plastic bridge means long-term savings

The Highways Agency has put up a road bridge with a deck made of Fibre Reinforced Polymer, held in place by steel girders. The £2m bridge is over the M6 in Lancashire.

Neil Louden, Highways Agency senior technical advisor, said the FRP requires virtually no maintenance. While the material is "fairly expensive", he said there would be savings from factors including quicker construction times. "We believe it would be slightly more in terms of the capital cost but we look at the whole life and believe that overall there will be savings," said Louden.

FRP is lightweight so can be moved around easily and installed quickly with little disruption to the road network: the M6 bridge was prefabricated by the side of the road and put up in one night.

However, Louden added that being lightweight does not compromise the material's strength: "When you think there are ships made of FRP that have been bouncing around in the Atlantic for the last 30 years, that's pretty severe. These materials are robust. We don't believe we're going to have any problems in that regard."

FRP has also been used in the aerospace sector and Louden said it is not at risk from weather or chemical degradation. He also hinted the Highways Agency is looking to use FRP in the designs for sign gantries.

Contractor Balfour Beatty sourced the FRP from Denmark. The designer on the bridge was Mouchel Parkman.