The River Wey holds an important place in Guildford, both in the sense of how much the local people enjoy it, but also literally. The river’s presence means that it isn’t always easy to get from one side of the town to the other, which is why there are numerous bridges in place to allow people to traverse it easily enough.
Between Woodbridge Road and Walnut Tree Close is the Woodbridge Meadow Footbridge, which has given numerous people the chance to make it across the river by foot. There is a plan to close it and instigate repairs, but those plans have now been delayed until next year.
About the Bridge
The Woodbridge Meadow Footbridge is considered to be one of the key footbridges in Guildford. This is largely due to the fact that it is positioned in such a place as to give university students a convenient route to make it from their place of study into the town centre. Meanwhile, those who aren’t students can use it in order to get access to Dapdune Wharf. If it weren’t there, anyone walking along the river looking for somewhere to cross would need to walk quite a bit further down, waiting until they reached Ladymead and the bridge over the river that is there.
The problem is, the footbridge, which is officially known as the River Wey Footbridge, has somewhat fallen into disrepair in recent times. As it is the responsibility of Network Rail, there had been plans put in place to see it closed between the 29th of September and the 19th of December. Now, however, we know that that has not happened and it has instead been revealed that the work will be pushed back into 2026. Here is a look at the original timetable that had been put forward:
| Original Date | Planned Work |
|---|---|
| 29th of September | Compound put in place / Footbridge and car park closed / Scaffold and encapsulation erected |
| 2nd of October – 18th of October | Mechanical cleaning and repainting to take place |
| 20th of October (Night) | Crane installed temporarily / Walnut Tree Close closed briefly / Spans 2 and 3 removed |
| 1st of December (Night) | Crane installed temporarily / Walnut Tree Close closed briefly / Spans 2 and 3 reinstated |
| 2nd of December – 19th of December | Compound demobilised / Scaffolding taken down / Footbridge and car park reopened |
Turning It into a Cycle Path?
The fact that the footbridge crosses the River Wey alongside a railway viaduct is why it is that the maintenance of it falls under the auspices of Network Rail. The organisation’s original plans had been to carry out the work before the end of this year, with the repair works being done in order to ensure that it remained a ‘reliable asset’ to the Guildford community. The work is complex, however, thanks to the likes of the cranes needing to be used to lift the spans out, as well as their transfer to a specialist yard in order to be repaired and repainted before being lifted back into place.
The entire project is also being complicated by the fact that the Guildford Bike User Group, known by the acronym GBUG, is pushing the council to have the footbridge turned into a cycle path instead. They say that doing so would allow the Wey cycle path to be connected to Woodbridge Road, which would then save cyclists from having to use the A25 and Woodbridge Road junction, which is considered to be a dangerous route. At the moment, though, the Guildford Borough Council has not indicated that changing the bridge’s purpose of use is part of its consideration.