![](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/05\/1_KW_BRS_160525A4018roadworks_04jpeg.jpg\")
Roadworks on the A4018 near Henbury, Bristol, are causing traffic disruption as the council works to install bus lanes(Image: Bristol Live)<\/p>\nHundreds of millions needs to be spent in the next two yearsRoadworks on the A4018 near Henbury, Bristol, are causing traffic disruption as the council works to install bus lanes(Image: Bristol Live)<\/p>\n
Traffic in Bristol could be seized up by roadworks on \u201ceverything, everywhere, all at once\u201d over the next two years.<\/p>\n
Time is quickly running out to spend hundreds of millions of pounds upgrading the city\u2019s transport network with several huge projects happening simultaneously.<\/p>\n
The West of England region was given over half a billion pounds by the government to upgrade its transport infrastructure, but told all the cash must be spent in just five years.<\/p>\n
Bristol\u2019s share of this was around \u00a3200 million, which is funding a raft of ambitious projects due to be rolled out.<\/p>\n
The City Region Sustainable Transport Settlement was awarded in April 2022, with a whopping \u00a3540 million for Bristol, South Gloucestershire<\/a>, Bath<\/a> and North East Somerset. The deadline to spend this money is March 2027, when any unspent cash will be taken back by the government.<\/p>\n Due to these tight timescales, and the length of time that planning major transport upgrades needs, several huge roadworks will take over major junctions in Bristol over the next couple of years. Councillors on the transport policy committee raised their concerns on Thursday, May 15.<\/p>\n Green Councillor Ed Plowden, chair of the transport committee, said: \u201cI think the single biggest risk in the next couple of years is the extent of the roadworks and the duration of them, because we\u2019re having to do everything, everywhere, all at once. We really need to get on top of this.<\/p>\n \u201cI\u2019ve seen the Gantt chart of Gantt charts (a project management tool for charting timelines) that officers are putting together, and it does highlight the really sensitive areas. In some places we can get on and won\u2019t have a massive impact, and in other areas it will. They\u2019re looking to either sequence those together or very much apart, depending on the nature of their sensitivity.\u201d<\/p>\n Projects paid for by this huge pot of money \u2014 that can\u2019t be spent on day-to-day services like collecting bins \u2014 include installing bus lanes on Bond Street<\/a> and the Redcliffe roundabout, building over one kilometre of new bike paths, and the East Bristol Liveable Neighbourhood<\/a>. Transport bosses hope that getting around the city will be much easier once they\u2019re complete.<\/p>\n Some schemes are expected to impact the road network more than others. In particular, the works on the Bedminster Bridges roundabout<\/a> will be \u201cquite impactful\u201d.<\/p>\n This will turn the two bridges into a signal-controlled junction instead of a roundabout, with one bridge for cars and the other for bikes and buses.<\/p>\n But the roundabout is a key crossing point from South Bristol to the rest of the city, and traffic already snarls up there. Closing the bridges during the roadworks will cause traffic to divert over to the nearby Bath Road Bridges roundabout, where traffic is already heavily congested.<\/p>\n