Published on Wednesday 16 July 2025
A £6million investment into the long-term life and reliability of Poole Bridge and the Twin Sails has been recommended by BCP Council’s cabinet.
The bridges, in Poole, are vital to daily commutes with 10,000 journeys across each bridge each day; the recommended improvements will increase the life of critical components and reduce the need for unplanned repairs.
The funding allocation comes entirely from strategic Community Infrastructure Levy - a capital pot that developers pay into; so the improvements will not be funded by Council Tax.
Key tasks have been outlined and proposed as part of the report approved by Cabinet - with both bridges expected to be upgraded over the next three years.
Procurement of specialist inputs and design processes need to take place before engineers can get to work on the bridges and will be a priority in the current financial year.
Work at Poole Bridge will address corrosion which has taken place over many years with repairs to the corroded steel and re-painting of the entire structure to protect the bridge from further corrosion.
Twin Sails, meanwhile, will benefit from changes to the design of the mechanism that lifts the bridges; the existing structure has required regular maintenance, which would likely continue into the future without the proposed improvements.
The investment will also see four new digital information panels installed which will operate on an upgraded system resulting in less maintenance and greater reliability. The new signs will be a solid-state design replacing the existing end of life electro-mechanical signs.
Cllr Andy Hadley, Portfolio Holder for Climate Response, Environment and Energy at BCP Council, said: “I am pleased that we’ve been able to set out a clear pathway for future improvements to both bridges to Hamworthy and the Port of Poole.
“Earlier in the year we established reliability upgrades to Twin Sails and Poole Bridge as one of the Council’s key priorities for strategic spending.
“These recommendations demonstrate our commitment to the thousands of people who use the bridges on a daily basis – whether motorists, pedestrians, wheelers, by bus or on the water.”
BCP Council’s Cabinet recommended the approval of £6million of CIL funding at a meeting on 16 July 2025 – with a final decision to be taken at next week’s Full Council meeting.