Balfour Beatty VINCI (BBV) has completed the relocation of a massive 112-meter, 1,631-tonne steel bridge over Lawley Middleway in Birmingham, UK. 

The operation was successfully executed by Balfour Beatty VINCI in collaboration with their bridge-moving contractor, Mammoet. To minimize impact on road traffic, the massive bridge span was relocated during night-time road closures, advancing 18–24 meters each night using a specialized skidding system, allowing the road to remain open during the day. Instead of constructing the bridge in place, disruption was significantly reduced by building the steel span on land alongside Digbeth Canal over the past two years. On 15 August 2025, Mammoet’s heavy lifting specialists rotated the bridge 90 degrees using two self-propelled modular transporters (SPMTs).

Over the next four nights, the bridge was guided into position across Lawley Middleway using a skidding system with a jacking push/pull mechanism in combination with the SPMTs. This rarely used technique marked a first for Balfour Beatty VINCI on the HS2 project. The Lawley Middleway bridge is a key part of the railway’s approach to Birmingham, carrying high-speed trains from the west portal of the 3.5-mile Bromford Tunnel at Washwood Heath onto a one-mile section of five interconnected viaducts—Duddeston Junction, Curzon 1, Curzon 2, Lawley Middleway, and Curzon 3—which lead directly to the platforms at Birmingham Curzon Street Station.

Now operating at full capacity, work on this section of the railway will advance over the next 12 months, including: the second breakthrough of the Bromford Tunnel, the Curzon 2 viaduct relocation, the first Duddeston Junction Viaduct move, the reopening of Aston Church Road, the demolition of the old Aston Church Road bridge, and the start of construction on the new Saltley Viaduct.