Nobody has published how often the Britannia Bridge is wind-restricted since 2021

A petition to build a third road crossing over the Menai Strait has 7,439 signatures, 7,098 of those in Wales, and stands third of the 102 open petitions on the Senedd's site. The Senedd's thresholds: above 250 signatures the Petitions Committee discusses a petition once collection ends, above 10,000 it will consider asking for a debate. “Build a new crossing over the Menai”, filed by Benjamin Poulton, opened on 27 May and closes on 18 September, so the Committee cannot consider it before then. Bangor Conwy Môn accounts for 5,734 of them.

What happens when the bridge shuts

Anglesey has two road crossings to the mainland. If the Britannia Bridge closes, Welsh Government guidance makes the Menai Suspension Bridge the diversion, and North Wales Police help coordinate that route “for vehicles weighing less than 7.5 tonnes”. The Suspension Bridge is under construction until spring 2027 and carries a 7.5 tonne weight limit, a 3 metre height limit and a 20 mph limit while the work runs. Anything heavier has no road crossing to Anglesey at all. Above 63 mph of wind Traffic Wales allows only cars and car-derived vans, and above 70 mph the bridge closes.

The count stops in 2021

The A55 over the bridge was limited to 30 mph in high winds, until further notice, when Cover read Traffic Wales at 17:41 on Friday. How long that limit had run cannot be established from the record: alert 594066 carries reference RNMDA_2026131566 and a first published time of 17:13 on Friday, and the same reference carried a first published time of 17:09 on 3 September. The node is re-stamped rather than archived, and Traffic Wales publishes no alert history. The last published count of restrictions is the North Wales Transport Commission's December 2023 report, covering 2017 to 2021. In those years the two heaviest stages, cars and vans only and full closure, came 27 times, "an average of just over five occasions a year". Nothing has been published for any period after 2021, on any definition. The wind speed that triggers the third stage was also changed in September 2022, so the older figures would not be comparable with a later count anyway.

Cancelled, written off, reopened

The Welsh Government's Roads Review Panel reported in February 2023: “The A55 Third Menai Crossing should not proceed. The case for change is not well-aligned with Welsh Government's aim to reduce car mileage.” A freedom of information release in April 2025 put the spend on feasibility studies for a third crossing at £1,444,144. In November 2025 Ken Skates committed instead to wind deflectors, “over £1m over the next 2-3 years”. Then on 9 June the Deputy Minister for Transport, Mark Hooper, told the Senedd that the Welsh Government “will now start looking at detailed options for a third Menai crossing”. That is a commitment to look, not a commitment to build. The scheme's own Welsh Government page, last updated on 31 January 2023, still reads “On hold” and still promises a formal response to the Commission's report “soon”. That report was published in December 2023.