The Transport Engagement team at the council have sent us this update about the repairs and road closures around the Banana Bridge. After seeing the distressing amount of vegetation that was cut down to enable the repair work, it is some comfort to see that planting trees is included in their long-term plans for the stabilised banks.

“In October we emailed you to let you know that, once the final stage of the emergency work to the river wall either side of Langton Street Bridge (known as Banana Bridge) was complete, we would start work on the long-term repairs.

However, recent high tides have delayed this emergency work, which includes craning 600 one-tonne bags filled with rocks onto the bank of the river to ease tidal pressure on the at risk wall.

Heavy rainfall in September and October led to tides that have been roughly 1.5m higher than normal. This has made it too dangerous at times for our contractors to be on the river bank to help guide the bags into place.

With more rain forecast, we have decided to put the emergency work on hold and start the long-term repairs to the river wall further down York Road. This means we need to switch around the partial road closure, and from Monday 9 December York Road will be closed between St Luke’s Road and Spring Street.

We are sorry if the change of plans causes confusion, but we need to adapt quickly as circumstances change to try and keep this complex project on track, and the safety of the work site must come first.

The long-term repairs include:

• • installing a sheet-piled retaining wall at the top of the bank to stabilise York Road
  • building a concrete piled wall behind the existing river wall
  • planting trees and vegetation along the stabilised embankment
     

These works are part of a wider £11.9 million New Cut river walls stabilisation initiative aimed at securing and reinforcing high risk river walls along the New Cut of the River Avon and protecting the transport infrastructure alongside it.

We know how inconvenient the road closure is. Thank you for your patience as we work to safeguard York Road and the river wall for future generations.

To keep up to date with the New Cut river walls programme, please visit www.bristol.gov.uk/newcutriverwalls.”