Sure enough, you can see the two ends and some of the infrastructure joining the tunnel to the Fallowfield path.
From the west the tunnel is approached by the side of the buildings on the railway bed.
The entrance can be seen, blocked by gates.
From the east the giveaway to its location is the cycle track in the middle of the vehicle ramp
which connects to the gap in the kerb...
Behind the wall is the cycle route
which would have entered the tunnel here.
The designer has removed his version from his web site, so sadly we don't know if he thought this was a good idea or not.
This all begs the question, just how much money was spent on this tunnel and who ended up paying for it?
Update: a follower on twitter has found the text for the deleted web page on the Wayback Machine, so we can now see what he wrote, though the pictures are now sadly lost.
View Fallowfield Loop Tunnel in a larger map
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ReplyDelete...who ended up paying for it?
ReplyDeleteNever been or seen, but it would probably have been Sainsburys, as part of their planning consent (Google 'Section 106 Agreements').
Sainsburys won't be the slightest bit bothered that it isn't used. Know one would insist they ripped their store apart to put it right afterwards. Tesco in Stockport for example was built bigger than the planners agreed to...and it hasn't shrunk to suit.
A similar situation exists in Ashton Under Lyne where an ASDA store was built over the canal. The 'towpath' was given a concessionary route through the car park & around to the rear of the store. However, when part of the path literally yards away from their carpark fell into disrepair, British Waterways/the local Council/ASDA all denied responsibility for it, and in subsequent years the concessionary path has been slowly disguised (for want of a better word) through the carpark.
Interesting. I use the Floop a lot, and not sure I'd prefer using such a long tunnel.
ReplyDeleteFascinating.
ReplyDeleteGood effort.
ReplyDeleteProbably a bit unpleasant that section but then the road crossing isn't great either. I'd heard of the tunnel but never got round to looking for it.