2-887-618 - Historic England Archive/Heritage Images

Severn Bridge, M48, Aust, South Gloucestershire, 12/12/1961. Laing workers using a truck-mounted drilling rig on the temporary pontoons at the site of the foundations for the Beachley tower of the Severn Bridge. This photograph was used in the January 1962 issue of Team Spirit, the Laing company newsletter, with the caption 'Ground Engineering Limited: rock-drilling in connection with the Severn Bridge'. The contract for the construction of the foundations for the Severn Bridge was won by John Howard and Company but part of the Laing group seems to have been subcontracted for the investigations of the riverbed. At Beachley they found a 10 metre thick layer of Keuper marl, a rock that softens when exposed, and this required extra deep foundations to be excavated to reach the limestone below.