Bridge not tested for years 'due to love locks'

A bridge was unable to be properly tested for almost a decade before its collapse due to the weight of padlocks attached to it, a council report says.

Pero's Bridge fell into Bristol's harbour in October after suffering a mechanical failure two months before.

Three tonnes of so-called love locks, traditionally attached to bridges as a romantic gesture, were removed during maintenance work in August 2025, ahead of a planned £1.51m refurbishment of the bridge.

Built in 1999, a Bristol City Council report said test lifts of the bridge had been carried out every three months to make sure the mechanism was reliable up until 2016, when the weight of the locks made this impossible.

The report - which will be presented to the council's harbour committee on Thursday - said the exact cause of the collapse remained under investigation but preliminary engineering assessments pointed towards a possible failure within the hydraulic lifting system.

The Local Democracy Reporting Service said the report noted inspections of the structure in 2025 and 2026 identified corrosion, water damage and deterioration to its bearings and hydraulic lifting system.

On 13 August, the bridge was raised for a planned engineering inspection and test but during the lowering process, it suddenly accelerated and became displaced from its normal operating position, it added.

Council officers said the bridge's central span then underwent another unexpected movement on 31 October, partially entering the harbour.

They added that engineering assessment indicated external vibration was the most likely contributory factor to this. It has not yet identified the source but said it was unlikely to be wind.

The council is now preparing a specialist recovery operation, estimated to cost around £280,000, to remove the bridge spans and transport them to Albion Dry Dock.

It hopes the repair work and reinstatement will be finished before the summer, although this depends on what engineers discover once the bridge has been recovered, the council said.

The local authority added that the cost of the recovery operation was already included in the approved £1.51m budget for the initial project and there would be no significant increase.

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