Plans to build Bath Quays Bridge have been granted planning consent.
This is the next stage of the development of Bath Quays, a new central Business District at the heart of the city centre.
Bath & North East Somerset Council has been successful in getting funding for the project from the Cycle City Ambition Fund as the bridge will provide both cyclists and pedestrians a new crossing point between proposed development sites on Bath Quays North and Bath Quays South. It will also enhance connectivity between the riverside and Bath city centre by providing an alternative crossing point to Midland Bridge and Churchill Bridge and the busy A36/Lower Bristol Road.
The granting of planning consent is a significant moment for the city as the Bath Quays Bridge represents the first new crossing of the River Avon for over 100 years.
Councillor Patrick Anketell-Jones (Conservative, Lansdown), Cabinet Member for Economic Development, said: “The new Bath Quays Bridge across the river represents an important link in the Council’s ambition to create jobs and opportunities for local people. As part of the wider riverside regeneration, the bridge will play a key role in connecting the city centre to the north and with the existing and future communities to the south and west.”
The bridge design was selected via an international design competition, commissioned by the Council in 2015. Six short-listed designs were evaluated by a panel of experts and exhibited at the Council’s One Stop Shop and online, with visitors invited to vote for their favourite. Following the exhibition, the panel evaluated the designs and selected Paris based engineering and architectural consultancy Marc Mimram’s ‘Between History and Modernity’ bridge as the winning design. The winning design was also the public’s favourite.
Following the design competition and selection the winning team further developed the bridge plans which were shared with the public in September 2016.
Now that planning permission has been granted work is expected to begin this year with the bridge completed by Spring 2018. For more information visit: www.bathnes.gov.uk/BathQuaysBridgePlans
Lets be very very very very clear about how this bridge was funded. The council ran a competition for a bridge that was supposed to be funded by the Bath Enterprise Area fund. Then CycleBath helped the council win CAF2 £3.8M for othe bridges to be built and repaired. The council then found a £3.2M ‘hole’ in how they were going to finance their new bridge, and re-allocated the CAF2 money to this bridge which means that neither rennovation of Locksbrook Bridge or a new bridge near to HalfPenny bridge (probably at the back of the railway station across to the river path next to the grounds are to be built. How the original bridge was ever going to be financed is a mystery. However when the new South Quays gets developed, recognition that the bridge will bring an uplift of 2.5% to the values of the property and rent should be recognised and plowed back into cycle infrastructure in Bath.