The staggering cost of Oxford railway bridge project that took nearly four years to complete

• A project to build a railway bridge in Oxford has cost £237.4m, which is nearly £90m more than the inflation-adjusted cost of the London Eye .
• The final bill significantly exceeded initial estimates of £161m, with construction taking over three and a half years to complete.
• Botley Road has now reopened to reconnect west Oxford with the city centre after years of closure and severe disruption.
• Network Rail apologised for the delays, attributing them to unexpected engineering challenges, including Victorian infrastructure and hidden gas leaks.
• A local campaigner estimated that the prolonged road closure caused local businesses to lose around £50m and resulted in over 120 job losses.

IN FULL

Railway bridge construction project cost more than London Eye and Millennium Bridge