The main A38 road to Bristol Airport will close completely overnight for a week

The main road from Bristol city center to Bristol Airport will be fully closed overnight for 11 hours every night starting tonight (Wednesday) for two of the next three weeks.

Bristol City Council is closing the A38 southbound at Dalby Avenue and Malago Road in Bedminster from 7pm on Wednesday 29 May until 6am on Thursday morning – every night for a week as full realignment works and continuous road redesign.

There will then be a 12-day break before the overnight closures start again every night for a week from 17 June.

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The A38 northbound through Bedminster has been fully closed since January 2022, with the city council’s highways chiefs telling residents, drivers and traders near East Street at the time that the work would be completed “in the summer of 2024”. The road has been dug up to install the new district heating network to serve the Bedminster Green developments, and council chiefs are taking the opportunity to realign and redesign the road to improve traffic flow for buses and cyclists, as well as to accommodate major new developments . of student apartments and for rent there.

With the start of summer 2024 just days away, there is no set date for the road’s reopening – the council now says it will be “late summer” but roadworks notices now extend to October on the official website of mapping the council’s road works. This week the council pledged to reopen the road to two carriageways by “the end of August”.

The overnight closures signal the beginning of the end of the mammoth two-and-a-half-year project, with the installation of a new continuous bus lane along Malago Road and Dalby Avenue, new and improved bus stops, improved pedestrian and cycle crossings. , new and improved bike lanes and repaved roads and sidewalks, the council said.

There will also be more street trees and planting, wider pavements and “sustainable urban drainage”, a council spokesman added.

The overnight works will see Dalby Avenue close completely from its junction with East Street and Bedminster Parade to southbound traffic – including buses – from 7pm to 6am every night between May 29 and June 5. The same closure will take place again at the same times in June. June 17 and 24.

The first week will see the ironwork being raised and lowered to prepare the ground for the new road alignment, while the second week closures will see the road fully resurfaced and road markings completed.

“During the closure, buses leaving the city center will not stop on Bedminster Parade and will run on Catherine Mead Street, Dean Lane and Cannon Street before going onto West Street and St John’s Road to follow their normal routes. Buses heading into the city center will be unaffected and will continue to use East Street,” a council spokesman said.

“There will be a signposted diversion for car traffic while the road is closed. Pedestrian access for residents along Dalby Avenue and Malago Road will be maintained and businesses in Malago Trade Park will be accessible during opening hours during the works.

“Malago Road and Dalby Avenue will be reopened to two-way traffic by the end of August 2024,” the council spokesman added.