Work to begin on keeping bridge open when river rises

York's Millennium Bridge will have work carried out over the next five weeks

Work to ensure a bridge in a North Yorkshire city can remain open when river levels rise is set to begin next week.

City of York Council said the work between Millennium Bridge and Butcher Terrace, just outside the city centre, would start on Monday and would last for about five weeks.

Diversions and signage will be put in place around the bridge so that people will still be able to access their usual routes.

A council spokesperson said the aim of the work was to stop the disruption of the bridge being forced to close when there was flooding.

“These works are making this key walking, wheeling and cycling route more resilient to flooding, allowing it to remain passable for longer when river levels rise,” the spokesperson added.

The council said the works would include raising part of the path that usually floods by 60cm so that it levels out more and installing pipes under the path to help flood water drain.

As well as this, the speed humps will be removed and the path widened and straightened so that people have more space to get across.

Persistent wet weather

The Millennium Bridge, which was built in 2001, runs over the River Ouse in York.

The footbridge was built with the aim of shortening the walking and cycling route for people in the South Bank area of the city to the University of York and to the city centre.

York has been hit with many cases of flooding and high river levels this year due to persistent wet weather.

Earlier this year, North Yorkshire was hit with a month's worth of rainfall in the first half of April, causing disruption to outdoor sports clubs and people’s homes being flooded.

And despite June normally being warm across the UK, this year has instead seen cold air being pushed in from the Artic, bringing cold temperatures and further rain.

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