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M4. Wootton Bassett to Tormarton to (J16 to J18)

Let in July 1969, under the auspices of Sir Alexander Gibb & Partners, this was the first contract on the section to complete the M4 between Tormarton and the Maidenhead Bypass. The successful contractor for the 19.2 mile length was Sir Alfred McAlpine and the tender sum was £8,886,105 for a 27 month contract period. The contract included some 3,500,000 cu.yds of earth moving and 1,500,000 cu.yds of imported filling materials. As the contractor decided to obtain quarry materials from the quarry opened on the previous length of motorway the construction commenced with earthworks at the western end. As the start of works was in July every effort was made to progress earthworks rapidly and so much earth moving equipment was brought onto the site that the payment certificates for the September and October amounted to over £1 million. (approaching a quarter of the contract price). At the time the comment was made "No other earth moving equipment is available it's all on "Mc's job"!

Another feature of the contract was the 28 bridges which were required. Access in many cases was difficult and the designs relied heavily on precasting of the Superstructure. The process of building therefore demanded highly detailed planning and scheduling of manufacture and delivery. In the words of Bill Egerton "It was a nightmare at times". It is recalled there was a measure of controversy during the design about the merit of using precasting techniques for most of the superstructure of bridges. Whilst the Chief Bridge Engineer in the Ministry of Transport (David Holland) favoured the concept, others considered it more costly and complicated and not so aesthetically pleasing. The progress on the contract was excellent and by early summer 1970 the remaining earthwork was a high embankment at the eastern end where the Motorway crossed the railway. Unfortunately foundations here were very weak and a major ground failure occurred under the embankment which required complete reconstruction with subsequent delay. The first part of the contract was opened in June 1971 to the interchange on the A429 near Hullavington and the remainder opened with the rest of the M4 in December 1971.