Exeter Bridge Road: lane reopens, swing bridge still shut

Update, 19 September 2026. The closed lane on the A379 Bridge Road bascule bridge at Countess Wear reopened on Tuesday 15 September. It had been shut since Monday 17 August, 29 days earlier.

Drivers got almost no relief from it. On Monday 14 September, the day before the bascule lane reopened, Devon County Council put an emergency lane closure on the swing bridge immediately beside it. That one is still in place. A specialist contractor is booked to work overnight on Wednesday 23 September to fix it. (Devon County Council, 16 September 2026)

So one lane of the A379 at Countess Wear has been shut continuously since 17 August, first on one of the two bridges and now on the other.

What the council has said

Councillor Dan Thomas, Devon County Council’s Cabinet Member for Highways, said the bascule work was finished “as quickly as it could safely be carried out”.

We know the closure caused delays, particularly at peak times, and are grateful to everyone for their patience.

He went on to set out why the second closure stays:

We also understand that people will be disappointed that the separate lane closure on the Swing Bridge must remain. Our engineers have ruled out a repair that would not last, and a specialist contractor will carry out further work next week. We will remove the lane closure as soon as the fixings have been made safe.

He also warned against reading the reopening as a fix:

Although the Bascule Bridge lane has reopened, these repairs are not a long-term solution to the challenges posed by an ageing bridge. We will continue to monitor both structures closely and carry out further work when needed.

What is wrong with the swing bridge

The problem on the swing bridge is different from the one on the bascule bridge, and it is in the road surface rather than under the deck. Fixings in the surface came loose. According to the council:

• attempts to tighten them did not work, because the parts holding them inside the concrete were moving too
• engineers ruled out welding the loose bolts, because that would not last
• a specialist contractor will use a different method overnight on Wednesday 23 September
• the lane closure stays until that work is finished

The council has not published the hours of the overnight closure, or said what the alternative method is.

The bascule repair took 29 days, not five

The first estimate was very different from the outcome. Devon County Council announced the bascule closure on Monday 17 August and said the next day that repairs were expected to finish on the Friday afternoon, a job of five days. (Devon County Council, 18 August 2026)

That estimate was overtaken within three days. On Friday 21 August the council said engineers had found cracks and more extensive corrosion once the structure was exposed, and that the defects “only became apparent as repairs progressed and components were exposed”. No reopening date was given. (Devon County Council, 21 August 2026)

On 27 August the council’s group engineer, Simon Hill, said the remedial work was “probably looking at a full week of work”, most of it below the deck and out of sight, and that the aim was to “open the bridge in September”. (Devon County Council, 27 August 2026) The lane reopened on 15 September. That was inside the September target, and 25 days after the Friday the council had first named.

Why these two bridges keep needing attention

Two moving bridges carry the A379 side by side over the Exeter Ship Canal at Countess Wear. The council says the bascule bridge is 54 years old and is opened around 30 times a year to let boats along the canal. The swing bridge beside it was built in 1936 and is approaching 90. Its steel plates are held together with rivets.

The bascule bridge’s fault is built into it. The council says its design causes galvanic corrosion, which happens where the steel support beams touch the aluminium deck and water or salt water gets in. It called that “a known design issue with these types of bridges” in August, and says both bridges are now operating beyond their expected lifespans.

The swing bridge also has a footnote in the war record. Devon County Council says British soldiers used it in May 1944 to rehearse the capture of similar bridges in Normandy, ahead of D-Day.

The council’s own consultation material sets out what keeping the pair going costs:

• more than 100 maintenance visits to the two bridges since 2020, to repair faults
• annual maintenance costs of £115,000, and rising year on year
• repairs that “often require lane closures and traffic management”, adding to congestion

(Devon County Council, A379 Bridge Road bridge replacement consultation)

The council describes Bridge Road as one of the three main crossings of the River Exe in the city. (Devon County Council, A379 Bridge Road MRN) When one lane of it goes, there is not much slack elsewhere.

The £42m plan to replace both bridges

Devon County Council consulted between 15 June and 27 July on replacing the pair with two new bascule bridges, designed to last more than 60 years. The main points of the scheme are:

• a current cost estimate of £42 million, with an upper limit of £50 million
• funding from the Department for Transport’s Major Road Network Fund, with the county council contributing at least 15 per cent
• the shared path for walking and cycling widened from 1.9 metres to 3.7 metres on both sides
• an improved bus stop arrangement and better cycle route connections
• the south bridge built first, then the north, so traffic can keep moving
• construction starting in spring 2029 and taking just under two years

The outline business case is due to go to the Department for Transport in winter 2026. Detailed design follows, subject to the department’s approval.

The argument about how high to build them

Two things are being argued about at once: whether the replacement should sit at the same road level, and whether the public was given a real choice.

The Inland Waterways Association and the Friends of Exeter Ship Canal and Heritage Harbour say five options were discussed with stakeholders in October 2025, but only one reached the public. They say the chosen option keeps the canal’s “exceptionally low air drafts”.

Ray Alexander of the IWA said the council “appears to be back-tracking on its own Strategic Outline Business Case”, which had identified the potential for cyclists and pedestrians to pass underneath higher bridges. “This significant safety benefit would be lost if they now press ahead without doing so,” he said. The two groups also say support for raising the bridges came from the Exeter Harbour Board and from Exeter’s MP. (Inland Waterways Association, 17 July 2026)

Exeter Civic Society published its own response on 13 August. It wants the council to “review and reconsider Options 3 & 4”, which would raise the highway and give more clearance beneath. It also warns that only one lane each way will be available during the two years of construction, and suggests a temporary two-lane road or a new parallel road instead. (Exeter Civic Society, 13 August 2026)

Exeter’s MP Steve Race said in July that he was “disappointed that the consultation only presents one option for public consideration”. He argued for “more ambitious options that would raise the height of the bridges and increase the air draught beneath them”. (Steve Race MP, 2 July 2026)

What it means for you

• The bascule bridge lane is open again. It reopened on Tuesday 15 September, so that restriction has gone.
• The swing bridge lane is not. A closure has been on it since Monday 14 September and the council has given no removal date, only the date of the repair attempt.
• Wednesday 23 September is the date to watch. That is the overnight shift booked to make the loose fixings safe. If it works, the closure comes off. The council has not said what time the work starts or finishes.
• Expect delays at peak times until then. The council itself acknowledged peak-time delays during the bascule closure, and the swing bridge sits on the same stretch of the A379.
• Do not treat any estimate here as firm. The last one the council published, a Friday afternoon finish on 21 August, was out by 25 days.
• Nothing structural changes for years. Even on the council’s own timetable, construction of the replacement bridges does not start until spring 2029, and the funding decision has not been made.

Our Exeter roadworks and travel page lists the other closures in force across the city, and the Exeter planning news page tracks the applications going through the city council.

Devon County Council’s most recent statement on the bridges is dated 16 September 2026. Everything above is drawn from the council’s own releases and its consultation material, and the parts that are unconfirmed are marked as such.

This page was first published on 26 August 2026 and has been updated since. It is our single running record of the A379 Bridge Road closures at Countess Wear.