A £13m scheme to repair 15 bridge piers under the one of the busiest motorways in the North West of England has been completed 11 months ahead of schedule.
Work on Manchester's Palatine Road bridge, which carries M60 traffic over the River Mersey, began in 2019 and was due to be completed in October 2023.
National Highways (NH) said using "an engineering method of working [had] shaved months off the completion date".
NH said it had also "saved about £8m" and removed 64 closures to the M60.
'Best approaches'
A representative said the construction technique used during the repairs "removed the need for propping the bridge deck... and instead adopted a carefully phased way of working, ensuring the bridge remained safe throughout".
They said that due to the nature of the repairs, the "majority of the scheme was completed away from the network and beneath the bridge with minimal to no traffic management involved".
They added that the bridge and the area around it would fully reopen on 25 November, four days after the reopening of the footpath and cycleway on the eastern bank of the River Mersey, and the repairs meant there would be no need for "any significant work in the next 25 years".
Bruce Parker, NH's head of planning and development in the North West, said finishing the scheme "almost a year early shows our commitment to finding the best approaches to carry out our projects".
He said in completing early, NH had also "managed to keep the cost of the repairs down".
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