A new bridge for cyclists and pedestrians could be built in Hereford city centre, to help enable safe active travel measures to be implemented on a busy route in the city.
The bridge would be built on the A465 (Aylestone Hill) in the city, over the railway line. This is due to this section of road being too narrow to add a cycle lane at present.
Herefordshire Council is set to accept and spend £306K Active Travel Fund grant on the delivery of active travel measures work in the city, that includes school streets, dropped crossings and active travel measures on Aylestone Hill.
The School Streets scheme will consist of designing and implementing an alternative parking strategy during the school drop off and pick up period. The scheme would look to restrict access of vehicles outside of the school to residents only during certain times of the day.
This will enable safer routes to be established for children when walking to and from school.
Funding for the School Streets scheme will allow for a pilot consisting of two schools; Lugwardine Primary School and Trinity Primary School. These schools have already expressed an interest and have been highlighted as suitable schools for a pilot to take place.
The Barton Road scheme will look at conducting a feasibility study of options on how best to link Great Western Way to the City Centre. Great Western Way is considered the main active travel spine in Hereford with key links to neighbourhoods both North and South of the River Wye.
The Barton Road scheme will also look at better ways for pedestrians and cyclists to cross the A49 junction from Barton Road into the City Centre.
Funding for Aylestone Hill will be allocated to carry out feasibility work on the city side of the hill to identify how best to incorporate future Active Travel Measures (ATM). The carriageway width over the railway bridge is a significant constraint, meaning various options (including an additional bolt on bridge) will need to be considered.
The Dropped Crossing scheme will upgrade the route between the college and city centre. This route has been identified as an issue by the Royal National College for the Blind for visually impaired pedestrians. Funding will also consist of installation of tactile paving along the route to assist visually impaired users.
The schemes will also help to realise the ambitions of the County Plan by investing in improved community infrastructure which is considered to be an important factor in delivering community resilience as the county’s population grows.
Herefordshire to be a destination of choice for walking and cycling tourism and to increase significantly the use of these active means of travel by local residents and enable more healthy low carbon travel options, including walking, public transport and cycling, to reduce congestion, improve local air quality and enhance health and wellbeing.
You can find out more details by visiting – Report Template Cabinet (herefordshire.gov.uk)
