Report claims Floating Harbour gates ‘have surpassed their expected lifespan’

A top councillor reassured residents that Bristol’s Floating Harbour will not empty of water if the ‘deteriorating’ entrance lock gates suffer a ‘catastrophic fail’, as a committee approved £500,000 for crucial inspection work.

Andrew Brown, Lib Dem councillor for Hengrove and Whitchurch Park, said other gates would keep the harbour in place if that happened.

He spoke as Bristol City Council economy and skills committee, which he chairs, allocated money from developer contributions to carry out a survey of the 150-year-old entrance lock.

A report to the meeting said it was beyond its anticipated lifespan and posed a ‘significant health and safety risk’.

The report said: “Entrance lock is a critical piece of infrastructure that allows vessel navigation in and out of the Floating Harbour.

“Following maintenance inspections detailed by the harbour engineering team and visits by an external contractor it has become apparent that the entrance gate locks continue to deteriorate, necessitating multiple interventions by the engineering team.

“The gates have surpassed their expected lifespan, increasing the risk of failure, and pose a significant health and safety risk.

“To obtain a complete understanding of the current condition of the gates, whilst also developing a set of robust interim and long-term options for the area, an upcoming programme of survey and principal inspection work is planned.”

Andrew Brown, Lib Dem councillor for Hengrove and Whitchurch Park, has reassured that the Floating Harbour will not empty of water, even if the ‘deteriorating’ entrance lock gates suffer a ‘catastrophic fail’

Andrew Brown told the meeting on Monday: “I’m particularly pleased that we’re getting on with the exercise to survey and inspect the harbour entrance locks.

“It was a number of months ago now when the previous harbour master on our regular catch-up calls said he had bad news and good news – the bad news being the lock gates were end-of-life, the good news being that if the lock gates fail, we do have other gates which will keep the harbour in.

“So, even if they catastrophically fail it doesn’t affect the harbour as a whole other than from an operational point of view of getting things in and out.

“I don’t want anyone thinking we’re about to lose all the water in the harbour overnight.”

A full council assigned the money, which is from developer contributions called strategic Community Infrastructure Levy (CIL), for the inspection when it passed the annual budget in February.

Monday’s committee agreed to confirm it for that purpose.

Richard Eddy, Conservative councillor for Bishopsworth, said: “I obviously fully support the drawdown from strategic CIL of the £500,000 for studies on the lock gates.

“Obviously once we’ve undertaken that we can look at the range of options, the costs and timescales.”

He then asked how long the gates were likely to keep functioning.

Principal flood risk manager Matthew Sugden replied: “The purpose of this £500,000 is to maximise the remaining life of the existing structure.

“It could be years, it could be months.

“We need to do that survey work and the initial repairs to answer that question.”

The entrance lock is the way into and out of the Floating Harbour for boats from the River Avon at Cumberland Basin.

All photos: Martin Booth

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