OXFORD, England—Venice has the Rialto. San Francisco has its Golden Gate. Oxford has the…wait a minute, how much did that new bridge cost?
This city of dreaming spires has lit the Promethean flame under poets and artists for centuries, but its latest architectural offering—20-yard rail and foot bridges connecting Oxford Station over Botley Road—has underwhelmed. Especially as the structures cost over a quarter of a billion dollars, and, to some, are giving nothing but “loveless ugliness.”
During more than a decade of Britain’s tinkering and planning, China built the world’s highest bridge and Canada forged a river crossing to the U.S.
In centuries past, the British built the Titanic in less time and for less money. The French erected the Eiffel Tower more quickly and cheaply, even after adjusting for inflation.
Detractors say it’s Exhibit A that Britain has lost its mojo.
“That can happen to a country,” said Julian Le Vay, a former director of finance and procurement for Britain’s prison service. He led a campaign to highlight the economic damage to local businesses during construction.
Planners said the project would close a key route into the city center for four to five days. That turned into 41 months.
Adding insult to injury, the end result is drab. “Literally at no point did anyone say, ‘Well, clearly this is getting out of control, but also—what are we doing to Oxford?’” said Nicholas Boys Smith, founder and chairman at Create Streets, a think tank specializing in urban design.
“On arriving in Oxford by train, you should think ‘Wow,’” he said. But then there is “this ludicrously ugly bridge.”
It wasn’t supposed to be this way. The Oxford Station Masterplan said its mission was to reflect the city’s world-class status.
It was one of the first projects under a new government program: swift, pragmatic and efficient enhancement delivery. SPEED for short. The
aim was to halve the time it takes to complete a rail-infrastructure project and slash the cost of project delivery.
But when they got going, builders hit a thicket of utilities running under the road. They needed to lower the carriageway by around 16 inches to let standard double-decker buses pass under the bridges.
Other setbacks included the discovery of a 109-yard upside-down arch designed by the Victorians to reduce flooding—a finding described by Network Rail as the “point of no return” for the closure of the road. They also found a World War II grenade, which threw, well, another grenade into the schedule.
One contractor said it was the most complex project he’d ever worked on.
Modern Britain is beset by planning delays, project overruns and ballooning infrastructure budgets. The postponements are so frequent and the sums so astronomical that it’s becoming a sport among the literati to come up with new ways to make the numbers make sense.
The superfast 140-mile rail line between London and Birmingham will cost up to $971 million a mile by the time it’s fully open—currently estimated for 2040 at the earliest. And that’s after the government cut the route by almost 60% to save money. A 3.3-mile stretch of a branch line to be re-laid in Portishead, southwest
England, required 79,187 pages of planning documents.
“There’s 14.6 miles of paperwork, more than 4½ times the length of the line that is to be reinstated,” calculated Ben Hopkinson, head of infrastructure at the Centre for Policy Studies, a center-right think tank.
On average, the U.K. pays 65% more per unit of infrastructure than comparable countries, according to a study by Britain Remade, a group campaigning for faster economic growth, and the Centre for British Progress, a nonpartisan think tank.
In other words, Britain gets less for more.
Analysts blame the number of planning, environmental and legal hoops that projects now have to pass through. Transport Secretary Heidi Alexander was more blunt. “This country can build big things—we just need competent people at the helm to deliver them,” she told lawmakers in May.
Some who saw Oxford’s Botley Road bridges after their unveiling said they could understand the delays and expense.
“There are things in the ground you can’t see,” said Graham Wood, who works in construction, before walking under the bridge. “X-ray vision would be great, but they haven’t invented it.”
Others were less forgiving. When Dominika Mikitiuk, a veterinarian visiting from eastern Poland, saw the bridge and heard the $314 million price tag, the 30-year-old had one question: “Just for that?”
As the problems piled up, businesses closed or relocated and residents became more irate, the project pivoted in January 2025 from reimagining Oxford station to just getting the road back open by August this year.
A month before that deadline, Network Rail discovered three gas leaks.
When they were fixed and the road under the bridges opened late last month, a local brewery threw a party to celebrate. They wore hard hats and smashed a bridge-shaped piñata.
Local merchants and residents said Network Rail, which owns and operates Britain’s rail infrastructure, also invited them to a party to thank them for their patience. Those who spoke with The Wall Street Journal said they declined.
A proposed opening ceremony was scrapped.
“I think they were so embarrassed,” said Zack Iqbal, 55, who runs a garage near the project. “It’s a functional structure, but it’s so underwhelming.”
Iqbal ordered a plaque for the bridge (parodying the kind found on historic buildings) with the inscription: “To commemorate the three years of chaos…and £millions wasted…to build a bridge.”
Network Rail discussed a formal opening event with Oxford City Council and agreed “it would not be appropriate given the challenges and delays,” a spokesman said.
But it’s not the end of the line for the unfinished project. Network Rail invited locals to discuss the next steps over tea and cake this week...
