Newbridge Road Weir update 11.03.22

Following on from the various options that had been discussed by the Afan Water Management Group (AWMG) and published in our 2021 End of Season News, some further advancement of this project has been made.

It has been widely recognised that this would be a costly scheme, both in design and implementation, so NRW and ARUP have been looking at ways to reduce the cost to make it a more cost effective, value for money scheme whilst still maintaining the main goal of easing fish passage at this weir.

Option 2 which showed a rock ramp structure either side of a reduced height weir remains the preferred option. However, it now has a ‘truncated’ lower (downstream) section that terminates with a small weir instead of extending to bed level. This low weir would be covered by the tide at low water most of the time. This truncate ramp would significantly reduce the build cost.

Further to this, the road bridge upstream is a CADW listed structure, and any downstream work on the weir has had to be signed off by CADW.

We have also now had feedback from the historical interest groups and it would seem that they are happy to take a photographic record of the structure with no further requirements for protection, so this gives us the freedom to develop a detailed design that best suits our operational requirements and is in no way constrained in this respect. We will keep members updated with the progress on this important project as it will greatly enhance access to the river by migratory salmon and sewin.