The mayor of Bristol has denied that commuters face years of chaos as several bridges over the New Cut need urgent repairs. Marvin Rees, who has run the city for seven years, said he “inherited years of neglect” but has now set out a £16-million programme of repair works.
The repairs could take five years to complete, although Bristol City Council chiefs warned a fixed timescale was difficult to estimate as they are still unaware of the extent of the works needed. One footbridge is already being repaired, but with long delays and spiralling costs.
Vauxhall footbridge, Bedminster bridge roundabout, the Banana footbridge, Bath bridge roundabout, and Sparke Evans footbridge will all soon see major repair works. Sparke Evans footbridge will be closed to commuters in the near future, while works take place. The New Brislington Bridge and St Phillips Causeway also need urgent inspections.
Read more: Chaos crossing Bristol as seven more bridges in need of repairs
During a cabinet meeting on Tuesday, June 6, Mr Rees said: “Bristol has 45 walkable bridges that span our main waterways. But over the years many of these bridges have been neglected, and we inherited a legacy of underinvestment in some of the city’s fundamental infrastructure, that goes often underappreciated until it’s no longer available.
“It’s been our job since coming in to identify those underinvested bits of infrastructure, including our bridges, and to put that right. Work is well underway with the restoration of the first bridge in the series, Gaol Ferry bridge. The final two sections of the footbridge are being repaired and painted by our contractor Griffith before we reopen it in the coming months.
“Once these repairs are complete, we will start work on the next bridge in the programme, Sparke Evans bridge. We’ve moved this to the top of our list as our inspections have shown it is in urgent need of structural repairs and we’ve already begun feasibility and inspection work on the bridge.
“We know that these important structures are key to our city and the works to repair them can cause significant inconvenience. However, I know most people will agree and understand that letting them deteriorate and putting off the difficult decisions of bringing them up to standard is not an acceptable way forward.”
Gaol Ferry bridge was closed in August last year, and is due to open in September. But the works have been hit by months of delays. The footbridge, a major commuter route connecting Southville to Wapping Wharf, was initially due to shut last June for six to nine months.
Its closure has left many independent businesses in Wapping Wharf struggling, with some traders saying regular customers have gone to North Street instead to avoid the diversion. Costs were initially estimated at £1 million but have now increased by 50 per cent to at least £1.5 million.
Huge concrete barriers were recently installed on the New Brislington Bridge, connecting Feeder Road to St Annes. These have reduced the size of the road from four lanes to two, and are needed to protect the crumbling structures on the side of the bridge from collisions.
A provisional programme, set out in a recent cabinet report, estimated the works to repair the bridges could take five years and cost £16 million, with money coming from the City Regional Sustainable Transport Settlement from the Department for Transport. Meanwhile inspection work on the St Phillips Causeway and New Brislington Bridge will cost £1 million. But the repairs could take much longer, as council chiefs do not know how much work is needed.
Councillor Don Alexander, cabinet member for transport, said: “Given that there are lots of high risk things, as with Gaol Ferry bridge, for many of these structures we do not know how long they will take to fix often until we actually open them up, because we just cannot see from the outside what the nature of the degradation of the structure is.
“So requests for a tight programme are not just about us doing our sums correctly, they simply cannot be given because we don’t have the visibility of the nature of the problem until we open it up. That’s something that I learned to my pain with Gaol Ferry bridge. But to be honest it’s something that engineers who are dealing with such structures always know: remedying one problem may precipitate another.”
The mayor criticised previous reporting of the repair works and denied the years of disruption would cause “chaos” for anybody needing to cross the New Cut, despite admitting that the works would cause “significant inconvenience”.
