Emergency road closure causing 'chaos' in city

Chloe Harcombe - BBC News, Bristol and Joe Lemer - BBC Radio Bristol
·2-min read

An emergency road closure is causing "chaos" for city residents.

A 395ft (120m) stretch of York Road in Bristol, either side of Langton Street Bridge - commonly known as the Banana Bridge - has been closed since Monday.

"Urgent" work is being carried out in the area to prevent movement of a masonry wall along the River Avon.

Diversions are in place and motorists are advised to plan ahead and allow more time to complete their journeys.

Bristol City Council said the work will be carried out in two phases, and will take 12 weeks to complete.

Although future long-term work is planned, councillor Ed Plowden said the council had to "scramble" to carry out the emergency repairs, after electronic sensors along the wall showed movement is speeding up.

The local authority is trying to avoid a "catastrophic collapse", similar to the one on Cumberland Road in 2020 which led to years of repairs.

Mr Plowden said the work is "very urgent".

“We have been monitoring the site and the movement is getting much worse.

"We’ve seen cracks appearing on the pavement on York Road," he added.

Jabishan, who works at a garage along York Road, told BBC Radio Bristol: "We won't be getting a lot of sales from petrol and customers coming in.

"It's going to affect other businesses as well," he added.

A delivery driver working in the area is facing a delay of an hour at the end of his shift.

"I'm not very happy about it, as you can imagine," he said.

"It'd be a lot easier if it wasn't there.

"If it was four weeks instead of 12, I wouldn't mind so much."

For the first phase of work, a section from St Luke's Road towards the Bath Bridge roundabout is closed.

The second phase - in six weeks time - will affect a section between St Luke's Road and Spring Street.

The council said residents, pedestrians and cyclists still have access, but drivers have to follow diversions around the city for the duration of the work.

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