IN Brief:
- Jackson Civil Engineering is delivering the £5.42m bridge and associated path works.
- Oxford City Council increased the wider project budget to £14m in 2025.
- Piled foundations follow the enabling works, with completion expected during 2027.
Oxford City Council has formally moved the Oxpens River Bridge into construction, with Jackson Civil Engineering preparing for piled foundations on the new walking and cycling connection between Grandpont and Oxpens. The fully accessible crossing will link communities to the south and west of Oxford with the city centre and form part of the wider West End regeneration programme.
Jackson has been preparing the site since the summer, installing tree-protection fencing, removing and storing topsoil for later reuse and creating the main working area. Trial holes have also been excavated on the southern side to establish the exact position of existing data cables before foundation construction advances.
The contractor was appointed under an NEC construction contract worth £5.42m for the bridge and associated path works. Oxford City Council increased the wider project budget from £10.3m to £14m in 2025 after approving a further £3.7m to maintain delivery, with external funding arrangements including Oxfordshire Growth Deal support.
The crossing has been planned for more than a decade as part of the regeneration of Oxford’s West End. Rather than functioning as an isolated leisure route, it is intended to add a traffic-free connection between Grandpont, Oxpens Meadow and the city centre, improving continuity for everyday walking and cycling journeys across the Thames.
The project has also had to accommodate a sensitive riverside setting. During detailed design, the alignment of the southern approach was adjusted through a non-material planning amendment approved in January 2026, allowing more than 70 trees that would previously have been affected to remain. Retained trees are being protected throughout construction, with additional native planting, bird boxes and bat boxes planned when the site is restored.
Planning permission for the bridge was issued in July 2024, but construction did not begin in 2025 after the project became subject to judicial review. The High Court dismissed the challenge in February 2025, while separate permission to construct across the River Thames was granted by the Secretary of State for Transport in June that year.
Those approvals left procurement and funding as the remaining major gateways. Jackson was selected in January 2026, replacing an earlier delivery route, and subsequent surveys and enabling works prepared the meadows and access routes for full construction. The project has now reached the point where temporary compounds and utility investigations are giving way to the permanent structure.
The bridge has been designed to provide an accessible route without steep approaches while keeping the main river crossing visually lightweight. Its position also requires coordination with the Thames Path, neighbouring nature areas, existing utilities and public footpaths, several of which have been temporarily closed or diverted while the works proceed.
That combination makes the scheme more involved than its £5.42m construction contract might suggest. Foundation work, structural installation and path construction have to be sequenced around ecological controls, river permissions, temporary access and a constrained public setting, while Oxford City Council has committed to reinstating affected areas after completion.
The completed asset is expected to transfer to Oxfordshire County Council for ongoing maintenance. That arrangement has influenced the project beyond construction, with the city council responsible for delivery while the future highway authority has an interest in durability, access for inspection and long-term upkeep.
Jackson is also working with nearby schools and community groups during the project, including STEM and careers activity, but the immediate construction focus is now the bridge foundations. Footpath diversions will remain in place around the works as the structure moves through its main civil-engineering phases.
Oxford City Council expects the bridge to be complete during 2027. After a lengthy sequence of design, planning, legal, funding and procurement stages, the project has finally moved into the phase in which progress will be measured in foundations, steelwork and completed paths rather than further approvals.
