It amazes me just how reliant we are on the road and on the car. Our vast network of roads and motorways enables all manner of business and social life to continue and to flourish. So the recent fire on the M1 is a reminder of just how much trouble can be caused when such an important motorway is damaged. A scrapyard fire, it seems, created so much heat and smoke, that even up to two days later, traffic is still being disrupted.
Not even the biggest, most resourceful breakdown assistance firm would be able to help its customers get out of this one. But the Highways Agency, and of course the emergency services –despite the very difficult conditions – seem to have done a tremendous job of getting traffic moving again.
One particular concern surrounded one of the bridges over the motorway, which, despite it having been made of pre-stressed concrete, had its structural integrity badly damaged. There are already big questions being asked about how such intense heat was caused by a scrapyard fire – an event that does not normally generate enough heat to damage a bridge in this way.
But as the Easter weekend approaches, the authorities seem to have got the whole situation in hand – with a little assistance from some of the biggest jacks I’ve ever seen to keep the bridge from collapsing – and the holiday looks set to be unaffected.
Despite it being 2011, the massive shut down of the M1 demonstrates just how easy it is to stop the flow of traffic and people in some parts of the country. And until someone invents a teleportation device, the risk of such events happening is something we are just going to have to live with.
Breakdown Cover from 
