Back in February I took a look at the progress of the Castlefield Utilities/Cycle Bridge Scheme and following my FoI request to Manchester City Council I discovered that it had not been built to the plans submitted to Manchester City Council. Apparently my request triggered a flurry of activity to try and sort the mess out.
Then a couple of months ago I went to a public PR exercise by the Network Rail Northern Programme at MOSI about the Ordsall Chord. There I was told that work was going to take place to fix the problems that had been highlighted by Salford and Manchester Councils and these works would be completed by 14th October and on that date Princes Street bridge would be closed and demolition would begin...
So works on the Ordsall Chord are already running over a month late as Princes Bridge is still open.
Though works have taken place on the Salford side.
On Trinity Way southbound, the cycle lane is now subsumed into the pavement before the junction.
The cycle crossing has been retained, but now without the jug-handle approach and the shared use pavement has been widened under the bridge.
Coming out from under the bridge a new yellow sign directs you back into the cycle lane for Trinity Way, but over the new bridge for NCN route 6.
However, the new bridge is still closed.
Access to the towpath is also still blocked, and the zig-zag down to the towpath is dreadful.
The cycle lane is still open along Trinity way and the pavement has now reopened.
At the other end of the new bridge the pavement has been reshaped slightly, but it is still not according to the original design which would have involved the cost of moving the BT box on the corner.
The Manchester end of the bridge is also blocked off. Note the obsession with telling people to slow down!
On the corner of Trinity way and Water Street there is a yellow CYCLISTS DISMOUNT sign with room for another sign above. It is not at all clear what this sign applies to.
Going left round into Water Street the pavement has been resurfaced, removing the slippery concrete paving.
The shared use pavement ends in a right angled turn into a new, narrow cycle lane
which comes to an abrupt end long before the junction with Liverpool Road.
On the opposite side of the road a new and wider cycle lane starts just after the coach parking bays.
Though this Moxons coach was parked on top of it.
Past the junction with New Elm Road the cycle lane narrows abruptly
just before the fork left to the Trinity Way crossing.
The cycle lane then turns sharp left into the pavement.
This then takes you up to the traffic lights at Trinity Way.
Here there is another yellow CYCLISTS DISMOUNT sign along with a NCN 6 sign pointing across the pedestrian crossing
This explains why there are CYCLISTS DISMOUNT signs. Manchester City Council has failed to insist that Network Rail Northern Programme upgrade the crossing to shared use.
So the diversion of NCN 6 for the removal of Princes Bridge is still a cock up and now features the we-couldn't-give-a-shit CYCLISTS DISMOUNT signs that simply shouldn't be allowed.
#fail
The Trinity Way cycle lane is on my regular commute and (when it was swept) was arguably one of the best cycle paths in the City. Forcing cyclist off the carriageway and onto a shared pavement however to bypass the traffic lights near Princes Bridge is an act of total insanity. Why??? It wasn't broken - by any stretch of the imagination - so why try to fix it!!! The traffic lights on the cycle lane at the end of Trinity Way though, at the Dawson Street / Regent Rd junction are broken though! I've reported several times over the last few years that there's an intermittent fault on them and occasionally the lights on the cycle lane to cross Dawson Street / Regent Rd from East to West opposite Porcelanosa will turn to green when the Regent Rd lights (controlling traffic approaching a 50mph zone from a 40mph zone) are still on green for 30 - 60 seconds or so! Money should have been spent fixing these lights (a disaster waiting to happen), putting an advance stop box on the lights at the Trinity Way / Water St junction to help protect cyclists in the mandatory Cycle lane on Trinity Way from vehicles turning left into Water St and every now and again sweeping the cycle lane on Trinity Way that becomes a mud bath over the winter months! These works seem to be spending money for spending sake and have introduced problems that didn't exist before and have not resolved any of the potentially serious problems that did!!!!
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