Graffiti along the M32 has been removed during a series of overnight motorway closures as part of a joint effort to improve the its appearance to motorists. National Highways undertook the work alongside Bristol City Council, Network Rail and Bristol Waste Company in a joint effort to tackle illegal graffiti that can be "distracting for drivers."
The decision for all four organisations to get on-site and clean at the same time was made last year and resulted in five teams of graffiti cleansers, mechanical sweepers, litter crews and vegetation cleaners taking on the work overnight in October and January. The maintenance project involved removing graffiti from the railway bridge over the M32 and retaining walls and cleaning up debris and vegetation.
After being cleaned, the walls were also treated with a sacrificial anti-graffiti coating to make future cleaning easier. It's also hoped it will deter future attempts to tag the surfaces, which National Highways says puts both drivers and the tagger at risk, costing money and causing further road closures to clean.
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Steve Pearson, service delivery manager for National Highways, said that by combining forces with the other partner agencies, they could limit the number of closures necessary to carry out the work. He said: “We know that people don’t want to see roads blighted by vandalism and have been working hard to detect and remove graffiti. But doing so causes disruption to road users and takes away funds that would be better invested in our roads.
“Some of the tagging on the M32 is in a dangerous location where there are no hard shoulders, but concrete walls, those carrying out the vandalism are putting their lives at risk.”
Omran Al Masalmah, Network Rail’s asset engineer (structures), added that they were "saving the taxpayer money" by working together. He said: “Graffiti is an expensive and dangerous problem for the railway. Not only are the costs involved with its removal significant, but those trespassing on the railway risk tragic consequences or life-changing injuries."
Councillor Kye Dudd, cabinet member with responsibility for Waste, said: “Too many walls and structures in Bristol are now blighted by unacceptable levels of illegal graffiti, which costs the council, homeowners, and other property owners hundreds of thousands of pounds every year to clean.
“We have received many complaints about the illegal graffiti on the M32, which is caused by people who put their lives and those of drivers at risk every time they commit criminal damage. Unfortunately, it is not possible for us to remove graffiti from a live highway network when we want because it is too dangerous.
“We recognised that this is not a problem we could solve alone, and we have been talking with National Highways over the last year about how we can pool our resources to clean the M32 when it is closed for regular maintenance.
“They jumped at the chance to do this, and I am pleased to say that we have now held our second joint cleansing operation, which has removed graffiti, litter, and weeds from the entranceway to the city. "
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