CityCyclingEdinburgh Forum » Infrastructure
‘New housing development in Edinburgh could pave way for footbridge across WoL’
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Posted 4 years ago #
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Posted 4 years ago # -
Lonstone CC and Cllr Ashley Graczyk on the case as well
[A new footbridge] Could join up the quiet road cycle routes from Gorgie all the way through Hutchison/Chesser, through Redhall Park onto the Union Canal or over to Hailes Quarry Park. Reduce cycle pressure on aqueduct
https://twitter.com/Longstone_CC/status/1297575553059389441?s=20
Note that I don't think the developers are proposing a footbridge. We need to campaign for one.
Posted 4 years ago # -
"...cyclists would have more options to cross the river instead of having to use the canal path over the viaduct which is rather narrow and cyclists are told to dismount but they often don’t so there are conflicts on that."
Ahem: there is already a substantial pedestrian and vehicle bridge over the WoL at Longstone, with bus lanes that cyclists can use, and that doesn't currently tempt anyone away from the towpath.
The aqueduct (not "viaduct") also crosses Inglis Green Road, as well as the WoL. The current junction of that road with Redhall Drive - which is where you'd likely end up if you come off the towpath at the bridge over the Lanark Road looking to cross the WoL at Longstone - is pretty poorly timed for any traffic coming from that direction so if it's going to become a useful active travel route that would need to be addressed IMO. (IIRC Kilncroft Side, which is the way you get from Redhall Park to Redhall Drive, is also not ideal as a shared use route so might need some work too.)
In any case, a bridge over the WoL at river bank level is no help at all for folks who actually want to proceed towards town on the towpath, or anyone coming out of town that way. In both cases it would mean negotiating the steps on the other side of the river to get access to/from the towpath. The other alternative would be to join the Lanark Road outside the WoL visitor centre and negotiate the not very pleasant junctions at Craiglockhart Avenue and Allan Park Road before rejoining the towpath by the water main bridge* (or the reverse if heading out of town).
Maybe with additional cash made available for proper cycling infrastructure that whole Longstone schmozzle could be sorted out but, on its own, a footbridge over the WoL from the old Booker cash & carry site would contribute nothing of any great value.
Basically, as an additional justification for said footbridge the aqueduct conflict argument is a non-starter IMO.
* aka the last remnant of the tramway which was built from Slateford station to the site of Redford Barracks to carry materials for the construction of same.
Posted 4 years ago # -
£40,000 for a bridge seems a bit... optimistic?
Posted 4 years ago # -
@EJStubbs - does carry Traffic over water so could be a viaduct of sorts but I agree with you it is an aqueduct.
I voted for the other bridge. It has been suggested before but not built I think when Band Q went and Sainsbury’s was built.
Say you were afraid of heights or falling in the canal and were coming round the back of the jail and wanted up on to canal, you could use this magic bridge then go up through the park and onto towpath avoiding steps or aqueduct.
Seems quite a bit of engineering for this. I predict it will not happen but I asked them to build it anyway. Agree also 40 grand is cheap.
THere is a passenger and bike ferry over the Thames at Shepperton/East Mosley - you ring bell and ferry person comes over and picks you up. You can then have an argument about Gordon Brown with the landlord of the Kings Head who you have wound up merely by asking for ginger beer (he bought 24 cans, they were past sell by and he flung them out, next day I arrived by ferry).
Posted 4 years ago # -
@gembo
As it carries both water and land traffic, it is in fact an amphibiduct but I'll let that pass in my usual spirit of generosity and tolerance.
Posted 4 years ago # -
@IWRATS I am happy with that but Stubbs might come back at you maybe suggesting you made that up?
Posted 4 years ago # -
Omniduct? Multiduct? Terraquaduct? Throw me a bone woncha?
Posted 4 years ago # -
No need for a bridge.
If you want to get from the new housing to the canal, using only left-hand turns and step-free access, there's a route for that:
Posted 4 years ago # -
If you want to get from the new housing to the canal, using only left-hand turns and step-free access, there's a route for that
What about the blind and dangerous right hand turn into Meggetgate?
Posted 4 years ago # -
The Booker site is already over the river so the houses they build would not require a bridge.
The developers are merely floating the concept to try to help their planning permission like Sainsbury’s did?? Any of the big fallen trees would sweep bridge away.
I would use the bridge and access the canal on skinny tyres rather than aqueMULTIduct
But agree if just for me then a bit much. Who knew CCE didnt like bridges?
I loved the one over the Tarff up Glen Tilt.
Posted 4 years ago # -
It seems sensible to have a new bridge, not least to allow residents of the new housing to directly access ASDA / Corn Exhange without enduring the wrath of carmaggedon and the narrow pavements of Slateford Rd
Posted 4 years ago # -
The Booker site is already over the river
That depends on what side of the river you're on to start with!
Posted 4 years ago # -
The bridge over the river Tarf was moving and wobbly. Old Bridge of Tilt is a Wade bridge and you know how I feel about them.
Posted 4 years ago # -
Moving and wobbly?
Generally Wade more sturdy?
Interesting philosophical point @neddie
This side of the river. Sainsbury’s - wide open aisles, no punters, not enjoyable but at least bearable
Over the river Asda, crammed, rammed and very terrible
Posted 4 years ago # -
Mildly off-topic:
Was looking through the old Google Street View of the area recently and I was wondering what was in this building behind the Landrover shop:
A70 by Bill Harriman, on FlickrThis is from Oct 2008.
Google Street View claims it was still there in May 2014 (though with broken windows) but not in May 2015.
I am sure someone here knows what that was!
I presume the new housing development will be at the site of the car shop, as it was demolished recently(?).
Posted 4 years ago # -
Moving dedication to the drowned youth. Very Victorian. Wobbly under tyre.
That Wade bridge almost three hunner year al and still bearing traffic the like of which was ne'er in the compass of its designers.
Posted 4 years ago # -
@Bill,oh yes, remember that office block. Student flats down at the Blue Goose and over the river at the Skip Hire place.
Posted 4 years ago # -
@bill
I think that was a BT office attached to a telephone exchange. I feel old just typing that.
Posted 4 years ago # -
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Posted 4 years ago # -
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Posted 4 years ago # -
@IWRATS: I think that was a BT office attached to a telephone exchange.
I concur.
I remember way back when I took Fred the Shred's shilling, RBS once having a "meeting without biscuits" with BT when the leased lines they ran their CHAPS service on, and for which they paid a handsome sum to have diversely routed, both failed when that exchange suffered a fairly serious fire. BT's excuse that they were routed through different floors of the exchange did not impress...
Omniduct? Multiduct? Terraquaduct? Throw me a bone woncha?
I propose "Stuffduct": a structure that carries stuff of unspecified nature across a void.
I believe that Scottish Canals officially refer to it as "The Slateford Aqueduct". But what do they know?
No doubt referred to by some as "that Victorian monstrosity*", despite the fact that it was opened some 15 years before Alexandrina Victoria ascended to the throne.
* As also used to describe the Great Northern Railway's bridge over Friar Gate in Derby: an (IMO) elegant, pleasingly decorated cast iron bridge designed by Edinburgh's own Andrew Handyside to be sympathetic to the surrounding Georgian architecture, although the local residents were apparently unimpressed. When I was living in Derby in the 1970s some people were still agitating to have it demolished - the railway having closed in 1964 - until it was Grade II listed in 1974.
See also: the man who told his son that the Angel of the North was a "bloody great eyesore" as we passed Gateshead on the train once long ago. Each to his own, I suppose.
Posted 4 years ago # -
Stuffduct could usefully be shortened to duct or 'duct for those who want to imagine a prefix without enunciating it. Good work.
Posted 4 years ago # -
That iron engineer was the original Handy Andy (true fact I made up)
Posted 4 years ago # -
I am sure someone here knows what that was!
BT office and computer centre, built in 1967, vacated in 1995 or so, demolished in 2014.
Posted 4 years ago # -
I totally forgot that office block was there!
Posted 4 years ago # -
BT exchange opposite Akva at Gardiner Crescent still there.
The architects have acknowledged my feedback so I expect the bridge is a flyer
Posted 4 years ago # -
I see the BT exchange in Pitsligo Rd has finally gone as well. When I lived thereabouts 25+ years ago there was a rumour that the security services used to listen to naughty phonecalls from there. It did seem to have rather impressive security for a telephone exchange!
Posted 4 years ago # -
@IWARTS @ejstubbs @Arellcat Thank you!
Posted 4 years ago #
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