Design of the M4 'missing link', South Wales

摘要

The remarkably complex section of the M4 which opened in December 1994 between Baglan and Lon Las in the industrial heart of West Glamorgan is the final 'missing link' of the London to South Wales motorway. The 10 km stretch cost £157 million to build and includes a 2 km viaduct across the navigable River Neath and its flood plain, a 2 km piled raft over Baglan Moors, a 0.5 km rock cutting, five railway crossings, four intersections and extensive modifications to existing infrastructure. This paper describes the design of this challenging engineering project and reviews its 20-year planning and development history.