West Lothian Councillor Visits Taziker on the Almond Valley Bridge Project

Published 11th June 2021

This month Councillor Conn from West Lothian Council joined engineers from West Lothian Council’s roads team and contractor Taziker under the Almond Valley Bridge to see the progress of improvement works.

The Cousland Interchange Bridge is composed of two decks carrying the north and southbound carriageways and works are currently underway on the bridge to perform concrete repairs to the underside of the west deck.

Taziker’s work on the Almond Valley Bridge comprises of painting of the steel portal frames forming the substructure; cleaning of the concrete abutments; cleaning of the twin drainage system that operates on the structure; and installation of humidity indicators to the portal frames which will allow more thorough and informative inspections and checks of the substructure in future years.  The portal frame bearings located at the foot of the portal frame legs will also be exposed for inspection for the first time in many years.  Both the abutments and portal frame legs will receive an anti-graffiti coating.

The work on Almond Valley Bridge is part of a wider programme of work which will see West Lothian’s bridge network gain over £1.3 million of investment this year (2021/22) to improve key areas of infrastructure.  The council will continue to invest in West Lothian’s growing road and footpath network, including town centre street improvements, bridges and street lighting, with over £53m to be invested by 2028.

Councillor Tom Conn, who is the Executive Councillor for the Environment, said: “West Lothian’s road and footpath network is growing and with that comes continued investment. Our road network is independently assessed and we have one of the best road networks in the country.

“The programme overall is huge and includes significant projects and general maintenance, but it all comes together with one aim and that is to improve the road and footpath network for customers.  You can’t undertake all road and infrastructure improvements without some disruption to traffic, but I’m sure people know that and we appreciate their patience.”

The Cousland Interchange Bridge and the neighbouring Almond Valley Bridge carry the A899, Livingston Road and the dual carriageway over the A705, Cousland Road.

Pictured: John Summers, Taziker Site Manager (far left), Councillor Tom Conn (centre)