News / bristol city council
Council knows where subways are but not location of all drainage networks
Contractors are set to map out drains in the 40 pedestrian subways in Bristol as the council tries to fix perennial flooding issues.
Whenever heavy rain falls on Bristol, many underpasses become badly flooded, blocking access for people walking, cycling or scooting.
Bristol City Council bosses said they “know where all our subways are”, but don’t know where all the drainage networks are which are supposed to stop them flooding. A new project due to start in April will use CCTV cameras to look at the condition of drains.
is needed now More than ever
This underpass in Hotwells is just one across the city that is prone to flooding – photo: Martin Booth
Updates on the plans were given to councillors on the growth and regeneration scrutiny commission.
Speaking to the scrutiny commission, Philip Davies, highway maintenance team manager, said longer term work was needed to stop subways flooding.
He said: “We’ve got 40 subway tunnels throughout the city. We know where all our subways are, but we don’t actually know where all the drainage elements within our subways are.
“Contractors will go around all 40 subways and plot out where all the drainage elements are on a plan.
“CCTV will help us with some condition data as well, because we don’t know the condition (of the drains).
“So once we’ve got all of that then, we’re in a position where we know the conditions and we know where everything is, and then we can start prioritising repair work based on what budgets are made available.
“We’ve had repeated problems, for instance at Lawrence Hill, but we’ve already carried out some work there so hopefully we won’t be getting issues coming at Lawrence Hill all the time now.
“But we need to do some longer term work to stop these problems repeating in future.”
Earlier this year the underpass at the Lawrence Hill roundabout was temporarily renamed the ‘Lawrence Hill Lido’ on Google Maps, after repeated issues with flooding left pedestrians scrambling over the busy road instead of using the subway.
Also speaking during the commission meeting, Emma Edwards, leader of the Green group at City Hall, said “this is really important for people’s mobility and moving around the city”.
She said: “You’ve got active travel, walking, Voi-ing, cycling (affected) if underpasses and roads are completely blocked with surface water.”
Main photo & video: Betty Woolerton
Read next:
- The strange beauty of Bristol’s underpasses
- Neglected underpass to be improved with £300,000 funding
- Underpasses in Bristol hit by floods for over a decade
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