United Kingdom (Commonwealth Union)_The river walls along the Avon in Bristol are at risk of collapsing and causing flooding and major traffic disruption. Bristol City Council plans to spend £12 million to stabilise the walls along the New Cut in a massive repair project which will take five years to complete.
In 2019 and 2020, Surveyors inspected the condition of the river walls along the Floating Harbour and the New Cut, and found that over a quarter of the “river wall assets” were in critical or serious structural condition.
Labour Councillor Don Alexander, cabinet member for transport, warned parts of the river walls could collapse unless urgent action was taken. He wrote in the mayor’s blog claiming that the current administration, first elected in 2016, had inherited “crumbling infrastructure”.
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Cllr Alexander said that failure of just 11 of these assets could lead to severe consequences, including loss of life, flooding, property damage, and major disruption to traffic across the city and that now was the time to start work on stabilisation measures to mitigate this risk and secure their long-term future for all the communities they support.
He said that these were difficult decisions to make, as in the short-term construction works cause disruption to residents’ lives and are therefore understandably not popular, and that the administration will continue choosing the sustainability of Bristol’s key infrastructure over short-term political gain.
Recent repair works to the Chocolate Path and the Gaol Ferry Bridge received criticism for running well over their schedule, while no workers could be seen for days on end. Contractors not foreseeing how high the tide would be was among reasons for the long delays.
More details of the traffic disruption as well as the works, are expected to be published this week in a cabinet report. The cabinet will meet on February 6 to discuss the plans and sign off spending the £12 million.
Four river wall structures will be given priority: next to the Langton Street Bridge; one near Bedminster Bridge and two next to Gaol Ferry Bridge. Four more river wall sites will see further investigation, ecological assessments and vegetation clearance: next to Paynes Shipyard, Gaol Ferry ramp, Camden Road, and the Feeder Road jetty.
Part of the Chocolate Path will be closed while the Underfall Sluice footbridge is being repaired, which forms part of the Avon flood defences. A diversion would be put in place via the Harbour Railway.
Cllr Alexander added that this was another example of their work investing in Bristol’s future, restoring the crumbling infrastructure that this administration inherited. “It is on top of our rolling £16 million programme to restore six key New Cut bridges and an investment of around £3 million into the sluice infrastructure, which protects the Harbourside and its surrounding areas from flooding, by controlling water levels within the harbour.”
In February 2023, river bank collapsed beneath foundations of new 17-storey apartment block
The river bank between a new 17-storey Bristol block of flats had given way and the landslip had exposed power lines and pushed bushes towards the water.
The massive slippage was located next to the sky-high Clarion House Boat Yard development which was not yet completed.
In the large slippage, trees and bushes had slipped towards the river exposing power lines in the bare earth.
The developers stressed to concerned locals that the tower block was not affected’by the erosion.
A spokesperson for Clarion Housing Association said they were aware of the issue at Totterdown Bridge and had taken prompt action to investigate further, with an engineer having already attended the site as a precaution. The building was not reliant on the river bank for any of its stability, and the engineer had confirmed that the site was not affected by the bank’s recent movement
