Work was carried out to demolish an old bridge over the E40 motorway at Erpe-Mere in East Flanders on Saturday night. The work that was carried out on behalf of the Flemish Highways and Traffic Agency led to the closure on the E40 in both direction at Erpe-Mere from 9pm on Saturday evening. The demolition work progressed quicker than expected and the motorway was reopened ahead of schedule on Sunday morning.
The E40 motorway between Ghent and Brussels was closed to traffic in both directions from 9pm on Saturday to allow contractors working for ther Flemish Highways and Traffic Agency (AWV) to demolish an old bridge over the E40 at Erpe-Mere that had been there since the 1950s.
Before the bridge could be demolished, some preparatory work had to be done. AWV’s Jef Schoenmaekers told VRT News that "First, the road surface had to be protected with sand and slabs. This is necessary to protect the road from debris from the bridge."
This task took about an hour to complete. After that, the demolition work proper could begin. Four cranes brought down the bridge simultaneously (see photos below). Once that was done, the debris was removed and the road surface cleaned.
Work completed hours early
Everything went smoothly and more quickly than planned. The bridge was demolished at 11 pm, an hour ahead of schedule. This meant that the clean-up work could also start earlier and the coastbound E40 reopened at 10am on Sunday morning with the Brussels-bound carriageway reopening an hour later at 11am.
Next weekend the Brussels-bound E40 at Erpe-Mere will be closed all weekend from 10pm on Friday until 5am on Monday (28 November) due to roadworks.