{"id":355252,"date":"2025-08-18T22:36:23","date_gmt":"2025-08-18T22:36:23","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/355252\/"},"modified":"2025-08-18T22:36:23","modified_gmt":"2025-08-18T22:36:23","slug":"bridge-defect-causes-14-mile-tailback-on-m5-near-bristol","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/355252\/","title":{"rendered":"Bridge defect causes 14-mile tailback on M5 near Bristol"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Three lanes were closed as emergency road surfacing repairs had to take place<\/p>\n<p>15:01, 18 Aug 2025Updated 15:08, 18 Aug 2025<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/0_M5-damage-repairsjpeg.jpg\" alt=\"National Highways carries out emergency road surfacing repairs to the M5 near Avonmouth Bridge\" loading=\"eager\"  \/>National Highways carries out emergency road surfacing repairs to the M5 near Avonmouth Bridge(Image: national Highways \/ X)<\/p>\n<p class=\"Paragraph_paragraph-text__PVKlh \">A faulty bridge joint on the <a class=\"TextLink_text-link__dBSS0 TextLink_enabled__dJF3l\" href=\"https:\/\/www.bristolpost.co.uk\/all-about\/m5-motorway\" target=\"_self\" aria-label=\"\" tabindex=\"0\" rel=\"noopener\">M5<\/a> near Bristol caused 14 miles of congestion and three lanes to be closed yesterday (Sunday, August 17).<\/p>\n<p class=\"Paragraph_paragraph-text__PVKlh \">Due to what was initially described by National Highways as an &#8220;infrastructure defect&#8221; on the <a class=\"TextLink_text-link__dBSS0 TextLink_enabled__dJF3l\" href=\"https:\/\/www.bristolpost.co.uk\/all-about\/avonmouth\" target=\"\" aria-label=\"\" tabindex=\"0\" rel=\"noopener\">Avonmouth<\/a> Bridge, there were <a class=\"TextLink_text-link__dBSS0 TextLink_enabled__dJF3l\" href=\"https:\/\/www.bristolpost.co.uk\/all-about\/traffic-travel\" target=\"_self\" aria-label=\"\" tabindex=\"0\" rel=\"noopener\">severe delays<\/a> between junction 19, for <a class=\"TextLink_text-link__dBSS0 TextLink_enabled__dJF3l\" href=\"https:\/\/www.bristolpost.co.uk\/all-about\/portishead\" target=\"\" aria-label=\"\" tabindex=\"0\" rel=\"noopener\">Portishead<\/a>, and junction 18, for Avonmouth, on the northbound carriageway.<\/p>\n<p class=\"Paragraph_paragraph-text__PVKlh \">A repair of the bridge was needed, however this took longer than hoped due to the heat.<\/p>\n<p class=\"Paragraph_paragraph-text__PVKlh \">Due to safety reasons, the repair <a class=\"TextLink_text-link__dBSS0 TextLink_enabled__dJF3l\" href=\"https:\/\/www.bristolpost.co.uk\/news\/bristol-news\/live-major-m5-delays-due-10432329\" target=\"_self\" aria-label=\"\" tabindex=\"0\" rel=\"noopener\">closed three lanes for the majority of the day<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p class=\"Paragraph_paragraph-text__PVKlh \">National Highways said that the bridge, which was affected by closures since 10.30am yesterday, was eventually fully reopened at 8.54pm.<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/1755556582_638_0_M5-damage-repairsjpeg.jpg\" alt=\"National Highways carries out emergency road surfacing repairs to the M5 near Avonmouth Bridge\" loading=\"lazy\"  \/>National Highways carries out emergency road surfacing repairs to the M5 near Avonmouth Bridge(Image: national Highways \/ X)<\/p>\n<p class=\"Paragraph_paragraph-text__PVKlh \">A spokesperson for National Highways said: &#8220;Three lanes on the northbound carriageway of the M5 between junctions 19 and 18 were closed for emergency repairs after engineers found a faulty bridge joint.<\/p>\n<p class=\"Paragraph_paragraph-text__PVKlh \">&#8220;A full repair of the bridge joint was required for safety and lanes 1 to 3 were closed.<\/p>\n<p class=\"Paragraph_paragraph-text__PVKlh \">&#8220;Due to warm temperatures, the tarmac took longer to cure than usual, with the road fully reopened at 8.54pm.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/0_M5-damage-repairs-2jpeg.jpg\" alt=\"Repairs took place on Avonmouth Bridge.\" loading=\"lazy\"  \/>Repairs took place on Avonmouth Bridge.(Image: national Highways \/ X)<\/p>\n<p class=\"Paragraph_paragraph-text__PVKlh \">The &#8220;infrastructure defect&#8221; had caused 14 miles of congestion for drivers, who faced delays of several hours throughout the day, stretching into the evening.<\/p>\n<p class=\"Paragraph_paragraph-text__PVKlh \">National Highways had issued guidance to motorists advising those driving to &#8220;allow plenty of extra time&#8221;.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Three lanes were closed as emergency road surfacing repairs had to take place 15:01, 18 Aug 2025Updated 15:08,&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":355253,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8818],"tags":[15066,381,748,393,4884,42350,11945,9731,16,15],"class_list":{"0":"post-355252","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-bristol","8":"tag-avonmouth","9":"tag-bristol","10":"tag-britain","11":"tag-england","12":"tag-great-britain","13":"tag-m5-motorway","14":"tag-portishead","15":"tag-traffic-travel","16":"tag-uk","17":"tag-united-kingdom"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/115052162861938670","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/355252","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=355252"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/355252\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/355253"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=355252"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=355252"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=355252"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}