Newport bridge: Opening of £10.5m link may be delayed until 2023

The bridge will replace a subway to link Devon Place and the Queensway

A £10.5m footbridge expected to open in 2020 may not now open until next year.

Engineers spent Christmas Day 2021 installing the 500-tonne structure at Newport railway station but it has yet to open to the public because the council can't get the parts.

It will link Devon Place and Queensway and replace an often vandalised subway.

The council want it open by the year's end but say it might not happen until 2023.

It said it was experiencing "supply chain issues" with materials needed to finish the area at the bottom of the Queensway side of the bridge.

The authority said it was working with the contractor to get an opening date for the Welsh government funded crossing.

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"We are looking at whether it is feasible for us to get enough of the public realm completed to allow us to open the bridge before the end of the year as we had hoped," a spokesman said.

Work to put it in place happened last Christmas day

"This would involve us facilitating access to the bridge from the Queensway side, while maintaining a construction compound area adjacent to this access point for the rest of the work to be completed.

"If this is not possible, then the bridge will open in early 2023."

Plans to put the construction work for the bridge out to tender were reported in 2019 after the Welsh government pledged £4m to the project in 2014.

But it has not yet opened because of supply chain problems

The £10.5m budget was presented to the Welsh government in January 2021, Newport Council said, and had not changed since.

In 2020 the plans were green lit and councillor David Fouweather said residents would be delighted to have the new bridge.