River walls in Bristol at risk of collapsing and causing floods

The river walls along the Avon in Bristol are at risk of collapsing and causing flooding and major traffic disruption.

Bristol City Council is planning to spend £12 million to stabilise the walls along the New Cut in a massive repair project which will take five years to finish.

Surveyors inspected the condition of the river walls along the Floating Harbour and the New Cut in 2019 and 2020, 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. Writing in the mayor’s blog, he claimed that the current administration, first elected in 2016, had inherited “crumbling infrastructure”.

Cllr Alexander said: “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. Now is the time to start work on stabilisation measures to mitigate this risk and secure their long-term future for all the communities they support.

“These are difficult decisions to make, as in the short-term construction works cause disruption to residents’ lives and are therefore understandably not popular. Our administration will continue to choose the sustainability of Bristol’s key infrastructure over short-term political gain.”

Recent repair works to the Gaol Ferry Bridge and the Chocolate Path received criticism for running well over their schedule, while no workers could be seen for days on end. Reasons for the long delays include that contractors had not foreseen how high the tide would be.

More details of the works, as well as the traffic disruption, 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; two next to Gaol Ferry Bridge; and one near Bedminster Bridge. Four more river wall sites will see further investigation, ecological assessments and vegetation clearance: next to Paynes Shipyard, Camden Road, Gaol Ferry ramp and the Feeder Road jetty.

Part of the Chocolate Path will be closed while the Underfall Sluice footbridge is repaired, which forms part of the Avon flood defences. A diversion would be put in place via the Harbour Railway.

Cllr Alexander added: “This is another example of our 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 surrounding areas from flooding, by controlling water levels within the harbour.”