With work recently started on the earthworks for the new bridge to be installed at Monksdale Road, we take a look at what’s happening, including a chat with Sustrans Project Manager, Paddy Tully, and Hydrock Site Manager, Julian Geer.
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8 comments:
Thanks Frank
Thank you for the latest information, Frank. I know a great deal has been going on behind the scenes for many months but it is good to see some actual, tangible progress. Men with hard hats and diggers - excellent!
Excellent news. Glad to hear that work on the ground has restarted.
Really good to see this going ahead, I was worried that this had run into trouble and wasn't going to happen.
I'd be very interested to hear what the justification, in sustainability terms, has been for this work.
In particular - how many cyclists that will use this route would otherwise have driven? I live right next to this route and have only ever seen recreational cyclists using this route.
I don't understand why we should lose a perfectly good foot path and dog walking route, not to mention hundreds of well established trees, so that a minority sporting interest - cycling - can benefit?
If there was a genuine 'sustanable transport' benefit to offset all the harm then that would be easier to udnerstand. But I can't see it here - the vast majority of users wouldn't have otherwise driven, it's just recreation.
I'm afraid that many walkers and dog walkers will no longer use this route, particularly older walkers. The sad fact is that many cyclists expect to be able to cycle too quickly for that to be safe and will treat this path as 'their route' expecting everyone else to get out of their way, now that it is tarmaced.
We've lost yet another foot path to cyclists. Sustrans need to realise that cycling is not a good in itself, and certainly not a charitable cause, it's just a sport like any other. Cycling instead of driving is the key.
I hope it was worth it.
Keep Going
Rather have the railway but the footpath/cycleway is the next best thing. The bridges and new trees and vegetation should smarten up the area. Not all dog walkers are responsible people. They don't all clear up the dog's mess.
Sam, thanks for posting. I launched the campaign for the Two Tunnels route as a shared use path and six years later a lot of people are pleased to see it being built.
In short, supporters will organise whatever's necessary to ensure that any small minority of users do not intimidate any other group and that the route does indeed operate as 'Shared use'.
I totally understand that current users have concerns that some people on bikes may travel inappropriately fast. We'll be working to ensure that cyclists in particular understand that the route is built from what was the old railway's 'Bath bank' and 'Park bank' and everyone should respect the laws of gravity, and greet other users rather than intimidate them.
This morning I was delighted to see the emergence of the first of the route's 1:20 accessible ramps - that at Monksdale Road - for the first time this will make Linear Park accessible for people who use wheelchairs or cannot manage steep slopes.
It is unreasonable to expect the Two Tunnels route to lead to a great 'Modal shift' from car to cycling/walking, though certainly, it will be used for journeys to work - and children will use it to walk to and from school. In sustainability terms it will certainly encourage people to use cycles, to walk (or both). And yes, it's expensive, but people must realise that the £2 million buys a resource with a life span, hopefully, of many decades.
The following's simplistic, but given a notional 40 year lifespan, £2 million equates to £50,000 per annum.
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