| River Route | Shared M5 Bridge Route | New M5 Bridge Route |
| map | map | map |
| Description: Uses Frome from Whitminster Lock to a point just east of the M5 then a new channel to Westfield Lock. |
Description: Uses Frome from Whitminster Lock to Latham then existing canal to A38. A new channel is used from the A38 to Westfield Lock via the existing M5 river bridge but staying in a separate channel to the river. |
Description: Uses Frome from Whitminster Lock to Latham then existing canal to the A38. A new canal following near the original canal course would be constructed including a new bridge under the M5. |
| New Locks: 1 | New Locks: 2 | New Locks: 2 (possibly 1) |
| New Road Bridges: 0 | New Road Bridges: 2 | New Road Bridges: 3 including M5 |
| Accommodation Bridges: | Accommodation Bridges: | Accommodation Bridges: |
| New Bridges: 0 | New: 2 | New: 3 |
| Underpinned: 2 | Underpinned: 0 | Raised: 0 |
| New Flood Gate: 0 | New Flood Gate: 1 (possibly) | New Flood Gate: 1 (possibly) |
| MOD pipeline: 1 | MOD pipeline: 1 | MOD pipeline: 1 |
| Estimated Cost: | Estimated Cost: | Estimated Cost: |
| £2.0M | £2.44M | £4.14M * |
|---|---|---|
| * includes £1.5m estimated M5 lane
rental but recent BW estimates could add another £2-3 m to the M5
bridge cost. |
Costings above are primarily based on those outlined by W.S.Atkins in their Stroudwater Canal Engineering Feasibility Study of Restoration which was produced in April 1991. These costs, which include preliminaries at 20% and contingencies of 10%, have been multiplied by 1.15 to reflect inflationary costs in the subsequent years. More recent costs are becoming avilable and those above need revision.
The above costs should be regarded as indicative and significant changes may occur when more detailed design work is undertaken.
Note that roughly £500,000 has been eliminated on the New and Shared M5 options as the W.S.Atkins figure of £750,000 provided to them by BT for the possible adjustments to their fibre optic cable which runs along the A38 seems highly inflated. A recent report from Halcrow has a more up to date figure of £250,000.
The cost of the new bridge under the M5 provided by W S Atkins was
much lower than recent BW figures and were dominated by contraflow
costs or the costs of building a bridge to minimise traffic
disruption. The BW solution was more complex but reduced the need for
contrflows to two short periods.