Work to demolish a bridge as part of the £500 million M8/M73/M74 Motorway Improvements Project is now complete.

Part of the M74 motorway has now reopened following construction work to level the old Bothwellpark Road Bridge.

The structure was the final bridge to be demolished as part of the major infrastructure project, which is being delivered by Scottish Roads Partnership (SRP).

In addition, engineers resurfaced large parts of the three mile stretch of road between J4 Maryville and J5 Raith, as well as undertaking a range of other construction operations.

Time-lapse footage of the scheme shows two metres of protective material being laid on the motorway carriageway on Friday evening, before two high-reach excavators on five metre high temporary platforms on each side of the bridge began to ‘peck' the concrete on the central span, bringing the bridge down in a safe and controlled manner.

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The two Komatsu high-reach machines, normally used for the demolition of tall buildings, were then joined by a further seven smaller excavators to demolish the outer spans. More than 500 tonnes of concrete, rubble and steel fell onto the carriageway during the early hours of Saturday morning and continued until late Saturday night.

The material then had to be removed from the carriageway and transported to a nearby processing area on site to be recycled. The recycled material will be reused to build new link roads and junctions as part of the major up-grade of the M8, M73 and M74 motorways.

The 51-hour project, which was completed six hours ahead of schedule, will help towards the delivery of the new roads by spring 2017.

Graeme Reid, Transport Scotland Project Manager for the project, said: "This was the last of six bridges to be demolished as part of this essential project to improve Central Scotland's motorway network, all of which were able to be carried out overnight. However, with no central pier to support each side of this structure, we had no option but to close the road for the weekend to ensure the safety of road users and our workforce.

"I'm delighted to report that the months of planning to bring down this bridge and the co-ordination of our many stakeholders, including Police Scotland, the emergency services and local authorities, has made for a highly successful operation, and I'd like to thank everyone involved for their efforts."

(LM/CD)