Menai third crossing work restarts, but the £670m bridge still has no funding plan

The Welsh Government confirmed on 6 October that development work on a third Menai Strait crossing would restart immediately.

The decision returns the proposed link between Anglesey and mainland Wales to active development, but it does not mark the start of construction. The work now being resumed covers the bridge’s design, an environmental assessment, preparation of a business case and the statutory approval process that would have to be completed before building could begin.

Daily Post’s report on the Menai Strait announcement says the development programme is being restarted at once. For people and businesses that rely on the existing crossings, the distinction is significant: the government is advancing a possible third route, not commencing an approved and funded bridge project.

The announcement does not settle a final route, design or construction date. Its immediate effect is therefore on the planning and approval process rather than on journeys across the strait. Any change to the capacity of the crossing depends on the proposal progressing through several further stages.

The £670 million plan still faces major stages

The proposed bridge has been presented as a £670 million plan. WalesOnline’s coverage of the Menai and M4 plans reported that Deputy Minister for Transport Mark Hooper described a third bridge between Anglesey and the mainland at that estimated cost.

The figure indicates the reported scale of the proposal, but it is not a confirmed allocation of public money. WalesOnline also reported that no funding plan was in place for the Menai scheme. The bridge must still proceed through design, environmental scrutiny, business-case development and the consent process now being resumed.

Those stages are not administrative details at the end of a settled project. They will shape whether the crossing can proceed and on what basis. Design work must define the proposed structure, while the environmental assessment and business case form part of the evidence required for subsequent decisions. Statutory approvals would then be needed before construction could go ahead.

The possible timetable is similarly conditional. WalesOnline reported that the crossing could take up to 10 years to deliver if all permissions were obtained. That does not amount to a commitment that the bridge will open within a decade, and it provides no construction start date. It instead shows how long the route from renewed development to a completed crossing may be.

The immediate announcement is consequently a decision to restart the work that could lead to a bridge. It does not resolve whether the proposal will secure approval or how it would be paid for. For travellers, there is no stated date on which the third crossing might begin to affect journeys.

The issue is part of a wider debate about transport links and infrastructure serving communities in north Wales. Elsewhere, public investment in connectivity has included UK funding for satellite communications technology, although that programme is separate from the road proposals now under consideration.

The M4 enters a separate 18-month review

Alongside the Menai decision, the Welsh Government announced an 18-month review of road-based responses to congestion on the M4. WalesOnline reported that all options were again under consideration, but the review has not selected a preferred long-term intervention.

This puts the M4 on a different timetable from the Menai crossing. While development activity is resuming for the proposed bridge, the government’s immediate step on the M4 is to reconsider possible road measures over the next year and a half.

The government has also said that other measures will be introduced to provide shorter-term relief while the review takes place. The announcement does not establish how much those measures will improve traffic conditions or when drivers will notice a change. They should therefore be distinguished from the longer-term option that may eventually emerge from the review.

The review itself will not remove congestion. Its function is to examine potential interventions before the government makes a longer-term choice. Any selected option would then face its own questions about affordability, approval, investment and delivery.

The parallel announcements address two distinct transport pressures. In north Wales, ministers are restoring formal development activity for another crossing. On the M4, they are reopening consideration of road-based responses while proposing interim action. Neither decision establishes when motorists will experience a permanent improvement.

Junction closures remain a preference, not a decision

A shorter, five-year M4 programme forms another part of the developing policy. WalesOnline reported that ministers’ preferred measures within that plan included closing junctions. The closures are not confirmed, however, and the 18-month review leaves the eventual package unresolved.

That difference matters to communities and businesses along the motorway. A ministerial preference identifies the direction under consideration, but it does not establish which junctions will close or guarantee that closures will form part of the final plan. Further definition is needed before their effects on local access and wider journeys can be assessed.

No long-term M4 option has yet been selected. Returning the alternatives to consideration gives the government scope to reassess road responses, but it also means motorists and businesses do not have a settled scheme, cost or delivery date against which to plan.

Funding separates proposals from deliverable projects

Funding remains the central unresolved issue across both announcements. WalesOnline reported that neither the Menai proposal nor the M4 scheme had a funding plan behind it. The £670 million Menai figure should therefore be read as the reported cost of a proposal moving back into development, not as an approved budget.

The M4 position is less defined because an option must first emerge from the review. Only then could the cost, approvals and route to delivery of that option be settled. Interim measures and possible junction changes also need further detail before their practical consequences become clear.

For the Menai crossing, the next substantive progress will come through the design, environmental, business-case and statutory work. For the M4, the announced 18-month review is the principal decision-making period. Both initiatives have moved into active government processes, but neither yet provides a firm date for a lasting change to journeys.

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