Modern transport infrastructure vital

WHILE it is good that the “Welsh Government” is providing palliative measures after the closure of the Menai Bridge, it is yet another example of their disastrous transport infrastructure policies.

The Menai Bridge is 200 years old (built 1819-26 by Thomas Telford) and it has been obvious to anybody with even the slightest civil engineering knowledge that this bridge has been needing routine maintenance for many years now, but instead has only been getting “sticking plaster” repairs, so now it has been forced to close to the public for proper repairs. It is high time the old lady was given lighter duties, she was designed for considerably lower traffic loads than currently carried.

What is really needed is a NEW road bridge over the Menai Strait, designed for modern traffic, but no doubt the Mandarin of Cardiff Bay will veto this idea as he did with the equally vital M4 Relief Road, bleating that we should “use public transport”, much of which is expensive, inconvenient, chaotic and unreiable at best. We should also be looking at replacing the 1966 Severn Bridge, which is also quietly coming to the end of its working life. Wales needs its transport infrastructure bringing into the 21st century!

Ian McNicholas, Ebbw Vale