MT 100/31

Long term projects: new bridge across River Dee estuary

Date range	1956-1965
Location	National Archives (see all files stored here)
Catalogue	See entry
File base	Series MT, subseries MT 100

Context

Well, it's true then: there really were serious proposals at one time to build a bridge or barrage across the Dee Estuary. These papers consist of discussions within the Ministry and a number of reports and deputations from the various local authorities in the area, primarily Flintshire and Chester.

The Ministry's view is that a road link across the estuary would be expensive and difficult to justify on its own, but if a wider scheme to reclaim land here was progressed, then a high-standard road from the Wirral to North Wales would easily be justified. The leading proposal seemed to be concerned with reclaiming land for housing and farming, much as the Netherlands do.

There was a great deal of excited talk about this, but the proposals were deferred for one reason or another, and seemingly never revisited.

There is sadly no trace of the one thing I was hoping to find here: namely, confirmation of the theory that M53 junction 2 is designed in the way it is to form a terminus for the Dee Bridge.

People with camera copies

Chris Marshall has a copy of a report, but nothing else.