Cllr Don Alexander, Bristol City Council Cabinet Member for Transport, has suggested that a new bridge across the Avon New Cut should be seriously considered. This followed the update of repair work to Gaol Ferry Bridge which revealed that its metal work was paper-thin. Repairs to this important pedestrian bridge have taken longer and cost more than was expected. It won’t be open before the end of the summer at the earliest, an inconvenience to the people of Bedminster and Southville, and a major setback to the businesses in Wapping Wharf who have been badly hit by its closure.
The repair work is expected to cost £1.5 million to complete – the original budget was around £1 million.
In Cllr Alexander’s words
As a lightweight suspension bridge, the Gaol Ferry Bridge was not originally designed to carry quite the number of people who, up until its temporary closure, used it each day to cross between South Bristol and this part of Spike Island.
Exactly where a new bridge might be located has not been mentioned.
In 2014 the Council obtained funding from the Government’s cycling ambition programme to build new cycleways across the New Cut. Two bridges were considered: one immediately opposite Camden Road in Southville and a second bridge alongside the existing ‘Banana Bridge’. Bristol Civic Society supported both bridges but objected to the unimaginative design proposed by the Council for the Camden Road bridge. The Civic Society’s preferred design is the featured image above: the cable stayed inclined A frame pylon bridge. Proposals for the Camden Road bridge were scrapped in 2015.