National Highways announced that it had finally completed a series of complex concrete repairs on Bromford Viaduct, the longest bridge in the United Kingdom.
The £1.5m repairs to Bromford Viaduct on Junction 6 of the M6 near Spaghetti Junction, were complicated not just because of their proximity to a particularly busy part of the M6, but also due to where the damage was located.
The base of the concrete columns was hidden underground but had been damaged by water, and so needed land to be carefully excavated around it to avoid causing any further damage.
This involved temporarily removing part of a railway line in order to actually gain access to the foundations, which meant that Network Rail was closely involved with the repair process.
Once this initial excavation work was complete, the damaged concrete was repaired through the use of resin injections. A special, high-strength resin was added to the foundations at precise locations, strengthening the concrete from within as it cured.
The work was carefully scheduled and planned to ensure that roadworks were not needed on the M6 itself, avoiding disruption to a particularly busy part of a particularly busy motorway.
They also moved some electrical wiring that was running underneath the foundations, which helped to ensure that future maintenance would not be quite as substantial an undertaking as the six-month excavation and repair project.
The name Spaghetti Junction that is used to refer to the Gravelly Hill Interchange near the Bromford Viaduct has a curious origin, believed to have been coined by a Birmingham Mail Journalist before the interchange was opened in 1972 to carry the motorway over canals and connect the M6, A38 and A5127 together.
The first use of the term was believed to have entered print on 1st June 1965, when journalist Roy Smith described the initial plans as a cross between Staffordshire knot and a plate of spaghetti. Sub-editor Alan Eaglesfield would run with the name, and Spaghetti Junction is still used to this day.