Bridgewater Way resurfacing preview - Pomona Strand to Castlefield

This route is one of the Velocity 2025 cycle routes. It's a nice new footpath along the Bridgewater canal, but it is a very poor quality cycle route, and in places quite dangerous.

I joined the path at Pomona Strand, near Old Trafford Football Ground, here the towpath crosses the canal on an iron bridge.



The path seemed to be open, so I assumed that the work had been finished.



The path has been cut back to make it as wide as possible, and finished with a gravel surface.



However, it was soon apparent that this surface was not fit for cycling. It is a deep loose gravel surface that is not bonded together, and my bike squirmed around quite alarmingly.



The path continues under the tram line, it is wide enough at this point, but it is quite uneven and feels like it is pushing the bike towards the water.



and then reaches this bridge under Pomona Strand.



Here the path turns to cobbles and narrows alarmingly under the bridge.



Under the bridge the path is extremely narrow and cobbled with no railings to stop you falling in the water. This is so narrow that no tricycle, cycle trailer or hand cycle would be able to get safely through.

This route is simply unfit for purpose as a cycle track.



The canal then passes under the railway and tramlines.



Here the towpath goes over several cobbled bridges that rise over the entry to the many wharfs. At this point the barriers at various alarming angles made me think the path isn't quite finished yet.



There are more narrow passages under bridges with cobbled surfaces.



These cobbled bridges are quiet steep and narrow, and the path becomes very busy here.



Finally the path passes under a closed pedestrian bridge where the paving stones are dangerous



and out into Castlefield Basin via another set of cobbles, or mud if you prefer.



The cycle route is then due to go round Caslefield Basin, past the Wharf Pub and emerge at the bottom of Deansgate.



This is a useful upgrade to the footpath along the Bridgewater canal, but it is a crap cycle route, and really quite dangerous. I hate to think how much cycling money has been wasted on this route when it could have been spent on upgrading one of the many parallel routes.

Castlefield Utilities/Cycle Bridge Scheme

Now as far as I understand it, this bridge is supposed to be the temporary replacement for Princes Bridge, part of NCN route 6, when Network Rail demolish it to build the Ordsall Chord rail link.

It is also a replacement bridge to carry the utilities across the River Irwell.

However, since the whole Ordsall Chord Scheme is still awaiting the results of a public inquiry, this bridge may or may not have been necessary...



From the Salford side of the river, it is clear that a lot of money has been spent on this Bridge and the path on this side has been extensively reworked to change the level of the towpath.



In fact the towpath has been split in two to accommodate the ramps, and the new bridge has been finished off to match the road bridge.



The surface itself includes bollards at both ends, presumably to stop some idiot trying to drive a car over the bridge.



The bridge links back to the road bridge on the Manchester side,



and then crosses the pavement and dumps you in the eastbound cycle lane...



Yes, you've got it, there is no legal way of getting onto the bridge from the Manchester direction!



From Water Street you have no chance of getting across.



The only option seems to be the pedestrian crossing,



or crossing Water Street onto the pavement at the entrance to the car park



and cycling along here illegally.



It seems that Network Rail have failed to put in the rest of the two way cycle track needed to get the route round to Water Street, which should have gone across this patch of mud.



This bridge is an expensive failure. It will result in many people being forced to cycle illegally along the pavement. I don't know who got to see these plans before they were signed off, but I do remember them being mentioned in a GMCC meeting, so I am pretty sure I know where some of the blame lies.

Meantime preparations have started to demolish Princes Bridge and Network Rail have chosen to block the cycle route...

Broken Bollards, Temporary Plastic Crap

The top set of plastic bollards on Middlewood Street have now gone, thanks to the efforts of passing drivers, most likely in HGVs.

These Jislon plastic traffic islands with bollards were only installed ten months ago, so they haven't even lasted a year.



The two bollards are still lying in the grass verge amongst the rubbish.



The remaining island is now badly scared and bits of plastic can be found in the cycle lane, evidence of the many drivers who either can't see where they are going or don't care where they drive.



Previously there was one...



Originally there were two...



The councils and TfGM love these plastic islands and armadillos because they are cheap. However, they are quickly damaged by traffic and would become an expensive maintenance burden, if only they cared about cycle route maintenance...

Broughton Bridge Salford

This is where anyone who rides a bike wonders about the sanity of the people who design cycle facilities in Salford. This is Blackfriars Road, heading south across Broughton Bridge. Up till now there has been no cycle lanes at all..



Suddenly as you approach the bridge an advisory (i.e. useless) cycle lane appears...



but as you get onto the bridge it stops



then starts again



only to end short of the traffic lights



and reappears just before the advanced stop line box.



Not that the local drivers give a shit about the cycle facilities round here.



Not even the bus drivers!



It is just as mad on the other side of the road, the cycle lane starts as you get towards the bridge,



but stops and starts again at the road narrowing, only to start again a few yards later.



I have to ask the question, who on earth thought this was a good idea? It strikes me as utterly idiotic, an example of council tokenism which we should all condemn. Even worse, where were the cycle campaigners when this went out for consultation? Did it go out for consultation?

Just remember folks, somebody got paid to design this!

At this point I would normally embed a Google map, but it appears to be somewhat broken, so here is a link to Open Street Map instead...

Worse Than Nothing

Some cycle facilities aren't just tokenism and a waste of money, they are also worse than nothing.

A great report by Warrington Cycle Campaign called The Effect of Cycle Lanes on Cyclists' Road Space demonstrates clearly how a 1.5m wide cycle lane reduces the amount of road-space available to cyclists.

Yes, a 1.5m wide cycle lane is worse than no cycle lane at all. Yet if you measure the cycle lanes in Greater Manchester you will struggle to find any that are wider than that and Salford have put in cycle lanes that are considerably narrower.



Then there are the shared use pavement schemes. This shared use pavement on Broadway, round the back of MediaCity apparently cost £300,000 pounds to install, but by all reports people prefer to cycle on the road, not least because of all those "cyclist dismount" signs. If anyone has more details on the Broadway Cycle Scheme I'd be interested to see where the money went.



And then there are the plain idiotic cycle facilities. Pavement lanes with traffic lights or lampposts in then are a firm favorite of mine. This is another from Salford, again part of the Broadway Cycle Scheme.



With all the money now flowing in for Velocity 2025, we need to ensure that all future cycle facilities are significant improvements on what went before.

Salford Armadillos Fail Spectacularly

Last weekend the workmen had just burnt off the inside lines of paint on Middlewood Street, but when I walked past the Armadillos had yet to be installed. Meantime TfGM were clearly keen on the idea.



So this weekend I went for a walk to see if they had been installed...



As I approached it became clear that there was something very wrong.



One Armadillo was on the pavement, a second was in the middle of the cycle lane,



and a third had been smashed into three pieces.



The one in the cycle lane was intact,



but the one on the pavement had also suffered damage.



There were also some bolts lying in the cycle lane.






In order to try to reduce the danger by putting the detached armadillos and the bolts into the scrub by the side of the pavement where they could do no further damage.

This passing rider clearly demonstrated how safe he thought the lane was by sticking very firmly to the road.



Salford council are clearly keen to hear our views on this....

email cyclesalford@urbanvision.org.uk



This instalation has proved just how useless these armadillos are. If they cannot survive for one week in this situation then they are totally unacceptable on schemes like Oxford Road.

Furthermore the experience in Camden is that they also fail to protect the cycle lane from parking vehicles.

I hope TfGM have learnt the lessons from this and avoid cheap and nasty cycle infrastructure.


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