A36 Cleveland Bridge repairs: Work starts on key route through Bath as road to close for 12 weeks

One of Bath's key bridges will close later this month for 12 weeks so urgent repairs can be carried out.

Cleveland Bridge forms part of the A36, a major strategic highway to the south coast.

The Grade-II listed bridge is almost 200 years old and was originally built for pedestrians and horse-drawn carriages, however it is now used by around 17,000 vehicles a day and is in urgent need of repair.

A £4million project to repair it has now begun, with temporary traffic lights installed on the bridge while initial works are carried out. Later this month, it will close to general traffic for 12 weeks.

The bridge will be open to pedestrians, cyclists and people on electric scooters throughout the project, which is expected to take seven months to complete. Emergency service vehicles will also be able to use the bridge throughout.

  • Timeline for works and bridge closure

The bridge will be open for the first three weeks of the project but there will be traffic lights in place while contractors install scaffolding.

From mid-May to mid-August there will be a full road closure while contractors remove damaged concrete underneath the bridge.

After the 12-week closure the road will reopen with traffic light controls in place for 10 weeks while more concrete repairs are carried out.

Once the work is complete, there will be a further three weeks of traffic light controls while scaffolding is removed.

The route will be closed to traffic for 12 weeks.

The entire project is expected to finish in mid-November, but there is a risk it could take longer if the bridge is more damaged than initially thought.

During a webinar about the project, Gary Peacock from Bath and North East Somerset Council, said: "We do know the bridge has continued to deteriorate and we won't really know the full extent of the works until we've got that damage concrete removed.

"However we anticipate we can still complete the works within 12 weeks.

"This is still a risk and until we've exposed all the damage concrete, we won't fully know."