The UK’s longest bridge may not not be the most glamorous but it is aimed at cutting traffic at a major motorway junction. Bridges define the identity of towns and cities as well as countries and provide crucial access between regions and cities.

Those who use the M6 in Birmingham will be very familiar with the Bromford Viaduct which is the longest bridge in the UK by some distance, spanning 5,600 metres.

All viaducts are bridges, viaducts mainly connect two points of the terrain which are similar in height in order to carry mostly rail and road traffic.

Built between 1964 and 1972 the elevated bridge is three and a half miles long, it carries the M6 motorway between Castle Bromwich and Gravelly Hill along the River Tame valley in Birmingham, England.

At 231 miles, the M6 is the UK’s longest motorway. It runs from Catthorpe, junction 19 on the M1, to the Scottish Border. While the M62 is the highest motorway in the UK connecting Liverpool and Hull via Manchester, Bradford, Leeds and Wakefield.

Between 2012 and 2014, the motorway along the length of the viaduct was converted to a smart motorway system, with variable speed limits.

In 2022 the National Highways completed a complex £1.5M repair programme to the concrete foundations underneath the viaduct. The work involved excavation of land around the base of the concrete columns, which had been damaged by water.

The Prince of Wales Bridge is the second longest bridge in the UK, crossing over the River Severn the bridge connects England and Wales. The bridge’s construction was completed back in 1996 to ease traffic over the Severn Bridge.

Grade I listed Tarr Steps – a ‘clapper bridge’ between Withypool and Dulverton in Somerset is the oldest bridge in the UK. 

Dating back to mediaeval times, the bridge is formed of massive stones and spans 55m across the River Barle in Exmoor National Park.

The ancient structure has had to be repaired a couple of times. floods in the winter of 1941-1942 saw the middle section washed away.  Further damage was sustained in 2012, 2016 and 2017.

Steel cables have been positioned upriver to help reduce the amount of debris reaching the bridge.