At Wednesday’s meeting of South Gloucestershire Council’s Environment and Community Services (ECS) Committee, councillors approved the committee’s capital programme, the list of major schemes to be invested in this financial year. This includes plans for the acceleration of the roadworks on the Bromley Heath viaduct, which at present could be closed for up to a year, reducing traffic to one lane in each direction whilst works are ongoing.
The ECS Committee has approved a recommendation to ask Policy and Resources Committee to approve the £3.7m acceleration, subject to securing the funding to carry it out.
The Council spent £17.8m investing in roads in 2016/17 and, if its bids are successful we could be investing as much as £21m in 2017/18.
Speaking of the decision Cllr Colin Hunt, Lead Member for Planning, Transport, and Strategic Environment commented:
“We are very aware of the traffic chaos these vital repairs are going to cause, but we can’t afford to let the bridge fall down. We have been working hard to find a way to deliver these repairs more quickly in a way which is acceptable to us as a Council, to the contractors in terms of health and safety, and to local residents in terms of whether night time working was acceptable.
Having had these conversations with the community and partners we have come to an agreement that if we can secure the necessary £3.7m we can go ahead with a 33 week contraflow on the viaduct, allowing us to open the bridge 19-20 weeks earlier than the initial plans. We are hoping to hear back from the Government in the near future.
We are also still talking with technical experts and local residents to find ways to ease the pain these works will cause, if you have a suggestion please don’t hesitate to get in touch either with your local councillors or with me on Colin.Hunt@southglos.gov.uk”
