£46 million Powys bridge project pushes back opening date

Having been delayed a number of times, residents will have to wait a few months longer before driving over the new Dyfi Bridge that will compose a new section of the A487, north of Machynlleth.

Building work started in spring 2021, having been delayed as a result of the Covid-19 pandemic, and was originally supposed to be completed in spring 2023 before being pushed back to summer 2023.

Now, despite progress on the bridge’s construction, the opening date has been pushed back yet again to late autumn 2023, with the Welsh Government changing the projected end date for the project on its website.

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The plan is for the bridge to form part of a new single carriageway road will join the existing A487 south east of Pont-ar-Ddyfi bridge.

The Welsh Government stated that the existing nineteenth century Pont-ar-Ddyfi bridge “was not designed to carry the current volume of traffic and the road is often closed due to frequent flooding causing traffic to take a diversion of up to 30 miles”.

The bridge was designed to make it easier to cross the River Dyfi, make it easier to access employment opportunities, healthcare and education, make sure Machynlleth remains a vibrant centre of the community, make the A487 and help prevent flooding.

The new road will cross the River Dyfi approximately 480m upstream of the existing bridge. This new stretch of road will become the A487, with the existing road north of the bridge becoming the A493.

The A493 and the existing A487 south of the Pont-ar-Ddyfi bridge will no longer be a Welsh Government road and so will be maintained by local authorities once the new road is open to traffic.

In an update to the progress report for the project, posted in April, Welsh Government stated that the next steps to be carried out over the summer include building floor bunds, installing emergency pumping facilities, building new road layouts at both ends of the scheme and changing parts of the existing road so that it joins the local authority’s road network.