FULL plans for a new foot and cycle bridge across the River Severn are to be put forward by the council but millions of pounds still needs to be secured to build it.
Work to build the bridge between Gheluvelt Park in Worcester and the old Kepax landfill site has gathered pace in recent months and Worcester City Council wants to spend £100,000 building a final business case and submitting a planning application.
Whilst £875,000 has already been allocated by the city council to ensure the project goes ahead, the council would still need to find £6.5 million to build the bridge.
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The council hopes to secure the money either from a single source or from a variety of contributors with section 106 money from housing developers highlighted as a potential source of funds.
Subject to securing the funding, work could start in early 2021.
The estimated total cost at the moment would be almost £9 million which includes studies, design costs, the new bridge, a path through the Kepax site and wider improvements. The construction of the bridge would cost around £6 million alone.
Worcestershire County Council promised £4 million towards the cost of the bridge as well as refurbishments to the city’s Sabrina Bridge in its last budget. The city council has put an estimate of £2.5 million for refurbishing Sabrina Bridge with the rest expected to go towards the cost of building the new bridge.
The city council has already put forward £875,000 for the project including £150k on feasibility studies and the rest towards making the project happen.
The council’s policy and resources committee will decide next Tuesday whether to contribute £100,000 of the £610,000 needed to build a full business case and compile planning applications as well as to pay for further studies to make sure construction could start as quickly as possible once approved.
Worcester City Council would be working in partnership with Worcestershire County Council to build the bridge.
County Hall would have the ultimate authority over the bridge with cabinet making the biggest decisions and county councillors deciding on planning applications.
The city council wants to build on the popularity of the Diglis bridge and open the city up to the north. The council said there are double the number of homes within 500 metres of the proposed bridge than in Diglis which would mean more people could use the new bridge.
Diglis bridge has proved to be far more popular than expected and a similar sort of demand is expected for the new bridge, says the city council.
The average number of pedestrians using the bridge per year between 2011 and 2018 was 15 times higher than the 2009 forecast made before the bridge opened. As many as 101,000 cyclists a year use the bridge on average in the last nine years.
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