The next stage of the £6.22m joint B&NES Council and Environment Agency project, Bath Quays Waterside, started this week with riverside path improvements alongside the River Avon.
The ongoing project will reduce flood risk for more than 100 existing properties, reconnect the city centre to the riverside with a new waterside park, and allow Bath Quays to develop as a new home for businesses.
Councillor Patrick Anketell-Jones (Conservative, Lansdown), Cabinet Member for Economic Development, said: “This investment will help us realise an exciting vision to re-connect Bath to its riverside, create new office space and a new riverside park.
“We apologise for inconvenience caused during the highway and footway improvements but all of this work will help to open up the city centre to the riverside and ultimately lead to the development of new space for home-grown and growing businesses.”
Bath Quays will feature new developments on both sides of the river, linked by a brand new pedestrian and cyclist bridge.
New offices will be at the heart of a bustling south-facing riverside park called Bath Quays Waterside.
This imaginative landscape project combines flood mitigation measures with a beautiful and adaptable south facing riverside environment.
The redevelopment of Bath Quays North will provide up to 30,000 sq m of high quality commercial space for new and developing enterprises providing inspiring and ambitious employment opportunities for future generations.
The Local Sustainable Transport Fund backed work to improve the riverside path started on Monday 22nd February.
It is being resurfaced and widened between Green Park and Nelson Villas, at Nelson Place West, with the addition of new fencing to improve public safety.
A new pedestrian and cycle link in Green Park is also being created, providing an alternative to the riverside path alongside the Broad Quays moorings during times of flooding when it becomes inaccessible. It is expected that the work will be completed in the Spring.
This improvement work and other riverside work to be undertaken later this year, will require the riverside path between Nelson Villas and Broad Quay to be closed on occasions; pedestrians and cyclists will only be diverted when necessary and signs will be in place.
With work currently underway to replace the Destructor Bridge at Midland Road, this means the towpath will be closed at times from Windsor Bridge to Broad Quay.
It is expected the Destructor Bridge will be completed and open by this Summer.
The Council’s contractor, Alun Griffiths Contractors Ltd, is also currently changing the one-way system around Avon Street car park into a two-way system, with a new road constructed through Riverside Coach Park.
Once completed, traffic will be diverted from Green Park Road, allowing the widening of the river bank opposite Broad Quays moorings, which will improve the River Avon’s ability to convey flood water, and establishing a new riverside public open space.
At the same time, essential highway maintenance work is underway on St James Parade., which has required the closure of Ambury and the junction of St James Parade/Corn Street, with a diversion in operation via Avon St and James St West.
Access to Avon Street car park and businesses is still available via Corn Street throughout the closure. The roads are expected to re-open to through-traffic by mid-March.
