{"id":470837,"date":"2025-10-03T10:21:13","date_gmt":"2025-10-03T10:21:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/470837\/"},"modified":"2025-10-03T10:21:13","modified_gmt":"2025-10-03T10:21:13","slug":"historic-wales-and-england-crossing-shut-to-traffic","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/470837\/","title":{"rendered":"Historic Wales and England crossing shut to traffic"},"content":{"rendered":"

One of the oldest crossings between Wales and England has been shut to traffic after engineers found structural damage.<\/p>\n

The old Wye Bridge between Chepstow in Monmouthshire and Tutshill in Gloucestershire has been closed to vehicles until further notice after workers found a crack in the structural beam on one of its pillars.<\/p>\n

The Grade I listed structure, now the world’s oldest five-arch cast iron bridge, was the main road connection between south Wales and the West Country until the Severn Bridge opened in 1966.<\/p>\n

Monmouthshire council have told drivers to use other routes and motorists could face congestion in and around Chepstow.<\/p>\n

“We know how important the Old Wye Bridge is as a vital link across the River Wye,” Chepstow town council said in a statement.<\/p>\n

“We completely understand the frustration this situation is causing our community.”<\/p>\n

The Wye bridge, the world’s largest iron road bridge when it was opened in July 1816, is open to cyclists and walkers.<\/p>\n

The crossing was shut immediately by Monmouthshire council on Wednesday after they received a recommendation from the consulting bridge engineers following a routine monitoring inspection.<\/p>\n

\"A<\/p>\n

The crack in the structural beam on one of its pillars has caused Monmouthshire council to shut the old Wye Bridge until further notice. [Monmouthshire council]<\/p>\n

\"A<\/p>\n

The structural damage reported by engineers is in the old Wye Bridge’s pillar two in the red circle nearest to the Chepstow side of the structure [Monmouthshire council]<\/p>\n

“Upon inspection, a crack was discovered in the structural beam on pillar two,” the council said in a statement.<\/p>\n

“We are currently discussing the next steps with the engineers, but the bridge will be closed for vehicular traffic until further notice.”<\/p>\n

The bridge was the only link between south Wales and Gloucestershire, carrying the main A48 Newport to Gloucester road, until 1988 when a new road bridge was opened at Chepstow.<\/p>\n

The Wye bridge, which spans 34 metres (112ft) across the Wye, was built by John Urpeth Rastrick in 1816 and cost about \u00a317,850 to construct, which is approximately \u00a32.2m today.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"One of the oldest crossings between Wales and England has been shut to traffic after engineers found structural…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":470838,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5008],"tags":[748,62337,393,4884,16365,148529,156802,156801,59357,44654,156798,16,15,156799,156800],"class_list":{"0":"post-470837","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-england","8":"tag-britain","9":"tag-chepstow","10":"tag-england","11":"tag-great-britain","12":"tag-monmouthshire","13":"tag-monmouthshire-council","14":"tag-road-bridge","15":"tag-road-crossing","16":"tag-severn-bridge","17":"tag-south-wales","18":"tag-structural-damage","19":"tag-uk","20":"tag-united-kingdom","21":"tag-wales-and-england","22":"tag-wye-bridge"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/115309739602063539","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/470837","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=470837"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/470837\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/470838"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=470837"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=470837"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=470837"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}