As part of an investment package for the A36 in Salisbury, National Highways has announced it will now replace the Wyndham Road footbridge over the busy city route.

The company, responsible for England’s motorways and major A roads, had initially planned to remove the 58-year-old pedestrian bridge altogether in a £23 million package of works announced earlier this year.

But having further monitored usage of the bridge and liaised with both city councillors and community groups, plans are now being developed to design a scheme to replace the structure, along with the Victoria Road footbridge.

Chris Hilldrup, National Highways Route Manager, said: “We do understand the importance of the footbridge as an A36 crossing point, and after listening to the community’s feedback, we’ve looked again at all options and will now be upgrading both structures.

“Installing more modern bridges will improve accessibility in those locations, and our next step is to go into detailed design to provide the best solutions to achieve that.”

The schemes are expected to be delivered in 2028/2029 and in the meantime, National Highways will keep communities informed every step of the way.

The A36 Corridor work is being delivered to improve traffic flows and reduce congestion in the city, along with enhancing safety.

And in addition to the bridge replacements, the investment includes the installation of new, adaptive traffic signals at the Castle, St Mark’s and St Paul’s roundabouts, alongside resurfacing work and an upgrade of the Southampton Road pedestrian crossing.

The scheme to replace the 32-year-old roundabout signals is due to complete in the coming weeks. The upgraded traffic signals will be switched on next Wednesday (22 October) under existing fixed timings and will become adaptive to traffic flows following the installation of traffic detectors next month.

(Picture: National Highways)