Cumberland Road Route closed for river bank repairs
AKEY road into Bristol city centre will be closed for two weeks again from today, as work continues to shore up the bank of the River Avon New Cut.
Cumberland Road, which runs along the south side of Spike Island from the Cumberland Basin to Wapping Wharf, will be closed to all vehicle traffic for a fortnight, and even cyclists will have to get off their bikes and walk.
It’s the latest long-term closure of the road, which has been shut off intermittently ever since the collapse of the river bank, Chocolate Path cycle way, railway line and some of the road happened back in January 2020.
Work began to shore up the river bank a year ago, and the next stage of that work requires the entire road to be closed, with only the pavement on the north side to be open.
The closure will also mean the m2 metrobuses will again have to use regular roads rather than the Ashton guideway, and passengers will again be pitched into traffic along Coronation Road in Southville.
Anyone wanting to access Underfall Yard will have to access via Cumberland Basin, and anyone wanting to access the SS Great Britain, the caravan park and other places on Spike Island will have to go round via Bedminster Bridge roundabout or Prince
Street Bridge to get there instead.
“The road closure is needed to allow working room for specialist equipment required to complete piling work – a process of inserting concrete columns into the ground to create strong foundations,” said a council spokesperson.
“During the previous road closure in July, a row of concrete piles was completed which now support Cumberland Road in the area of failure. This new closure is necessary to install further, smaller piles at the narrowest part of the site, which will also help to provide support to the Harbour Railway and Chocolate Path.
“These smaller piles will be installed over the complete length of area being stabilised, but this can be done without the full road closure as the site is wider in the remaining area.
“Diversion signs for traffic will be in place during the road closure.
“We recognise that this will inevitably cause some additional disruption for citizens, for which we apologise. We ask road users to bear with us while we complete the next phase of the vital stabilisation work on Cumberland Road, which is designed to ensure safety and prevent further disruption in the longer term.’’
The work is expected to be finished by September next year, and when it’s done it will mean the railway and the Chocolate Path, which closed in 2017 because of an earlier collapse that wasn’t fixed, will finally reopen too.