Tag: access

#365daysofbiking Step on up


January 31st – Wearily plodding to Chasewater – not easy in the post-hospital condition in which I found myself – I stopped to note that the new steps between the McLean Way – the former rail line through Brownhills and the canal at the Newtown Viaduct were now complete, and had a lady feeling channel just like the ones at Bullows Road.

The steps are gorgeous and very well thought out, as I’ve come to expect from this volunteer, mainly OAP led project.

I never thought I’d see this come to pass but I’m so glad it has. My thanks and support go out to all involved.

This journal is moving home. Find out more by clicking here

from Tumblr https://ift.tt/31pOt2k
via IFTTT

#365daysofbiking A sign of failure

 

February 25th – Telford station, Monday morning.

I notice we now have an ‘Official Procedure’ for when the lift on the new pedestrian bridge breaks down.

‘Complimentary’ taxis will run the stranded passengers from one side of the station to the other.

If you spend nine million pounds on a new bridge to fix disability access issues, then omit a ramp and replace it with an unreliable lift meaning punters can become stranded if it breaks – you have failed as a designer and actually made the problem you set out to solve worse.

This is an idiotic disgrace. Those that allowed this to happen should be ashamed.

This journal is moving home. Please find out more by clicking here.

from Tumblr https://ift.tt/2H68nHI
via IFTTT

#365daysofbiking The Crossing:

December 13th – A bright, glass hard, cold day saw me in Telford mid-morning, and in the week or two I haven’t been here, the new footbridge has opened.

Man, is it a curate’s egg.

First thing is, someone clearly booked the possessions and plant to remove the old bridge for a fixed date, and the new one had to open. Regardless. So it’s not in even a nearly finished state. Brick cladding is still being laid. The access ramp to the cycleway on the Priorslee side is still being built. Bits of it haven’t been surfaced properly or at all. Workmen still mingle with commuters. It’s a bloody mess if I’m honest.

The bridge itself is an interesting, open construction that’s light and airy. It makes the journey between platforms one hell of a lot shorter. The lifts are welcome. It feels stable and the thing seems to be a nice, rigid design.

But there’s a huge, massive, glaring issue.

There is no ramp access to the Shrewsbury side of the station. So wheelies and those not able to use steps are confined to the lift. If that isn’t working, someone alighting here from Brum or Wolves will be stranded on a platform next to a 6 lane road with no means to cross it. There is no simple way around.

I can’t overstate how bad this is if it’s the final design.

If the bridge does not eventually provide ramp access to the Shrewsbury platform, then it will have failed in its primary objective – to make life easier for those that found the old ramp too steep. The designers will have spent 10 million quid making the use of this station for those with limited mobility much more of a gamble.

I hope I’m wrong and a ramp is sorted. If not, the council and Network Rail really need to rethink this urgently.

The bridge is nice, but too reliant on lifts, and at the moment is very much unfinished. Open too soon, and at the moment, looking critically flawed.

This journal is moving home. Please find out more by clicking here.

from Tumblr https://ift.tt/2BljkRc
via IFTTT

August 13th – A brighter day when the morning got going and I found myself visiting Telford feeling better, even if my stomach was still uncomfortable.

The footbridge project is progressing well but there still seems to be an awful lot to do: No discernible structural assembly of the lifts yet, and the access point on the west side seems miles off completion yet, although in the way these things generally do, it’ll probably come together very quickly in the end.

Interesting to note the main span mainly constructed now, and it’ll be lifted in one piece onto the piers. I’d be interested to see if that ripples the roof skin.

At the station end – which this construction is already dwarfing – there are to large, green service cabinets in position by the steps. Perhaps it’s me, but they look really, really incongruous.

This gets more and more fascinating every time I visit.

June 8th – I hopped off the canal at Bentley Mill Way to check out the work on the aqueduct from ground level; as the road is still closed, I was curious; it seems there’s work on the north side that can’t be seen from the canal. 

I’m sure whole canals were dug by hand faster than this project has limped to completion.

One of the first things I noted was the new towpath surface ends at the top of the steps here, so I guess the intention is you get here using the shared-use path, then hop on the canal for Walsall. 

Only a non-cyclist could have thought this was a good idea. The steps, even for a fairly strong bloke like me, were a nightmare with a bike. There’s no handrail. No wheeling channel. The steps are at an awkward pitch, and overgrown. This is lousy, and I strongly advise cyclists not to use it.

Off the bridge, the roadway has been lowered considerably to accommodate taller vehicles, but I’m not sure that’ll help much as the width is very restricted.

As I said before, I hope the pumps hoovering the water from those drains are reliable.

I don’t want to dislike this – but this has cost millions, for no real improvement and it stinks of being someone’s pet project.

Dire.

April 11th – After being closed during roadworks since last summer, it’s good to see the steps from the canal up to Bentley Road in Darlaston back open. With them closed, it meant a trip to Bughole Bridge – not too bad on a bike, but a fair walk to get back to the same place. The steps on Bughole Bridge are also much harder to get a bike up, unlike these, which are so shallow, you can actually ride down them if you’re careful.

Long overdue, but glad to see it.

October 30th – If you’re planning to go for a walk or ride, and part of the route involves getting from the canal to Bentley Mill Way in Walsall, the access steps between the two off the aqueduct are now fenced off and inaccessible, as part of the major roadworks that have closed the road for 13 moths to come.

You can still get down to the road from the Darlaston side, but the route is not pleasant and I’m not sure how long it’ll be before that’s inaccessible too.

Take care folks.

August 15th – Climbing the hill from Stonnall, I passed the entry to Shire Oak Park. There was once a gate here that either got broken or stolen, I’m unclear of the exact detail. For over 12 months now, the gate has been replaced by a variety of hastily-nailed planks, torn down once to enable access for flytipping.

Now, the gate has been replaced by two removable steel bollards. 

They don’t look terribly beefy to me. But time will tell. I can’t quite get my head around how long this has taken to sort out.

February 1st – I’m coming to realise the value of multi-storey car parks as crow’s nests for taking a view of a town. I rode up to the car park on the roof of Aldridge Shopping Centre to see if I could find a decent photo, and I wasn’t disappointed. 

One thing that’s always piqued my curiosity here is the truncated access ramp that never was; at the back of the centre, an unfinished sloping access way is abruptly truncated on the edge of Rookery Lane, hanging in mid air without explanation. Legend has it that the required planning permission was not in place to complete it, or denied, and the alternate spiral one further down was built instead.

Wonder if that’s true?

February 23rd – Evidence of subterranean systems of an altogether more sinister nature can be found dotted around the borderlands of Walsall Wood, Shelfield and Aldridge. These odd enclosures – one in the fall towards the marl pit by the Brickyard Road canal bridge at Stubbers Green, and the other, on scrub near the end of Dumblederry Lane in Aldridge, are grim reminders of what lies beneath. They are access boreholes to the mine workings beneath, filled with millions and millions of gallons of toxic waste, dumped there after the mines closed. The dumping, over the course of a couple of decades, was freeform and barely regulated. The current operators of the site from which this dump is accessed manage it carefully. The boreholes, of which there are a number, are fenced and secured for obvious reasons. The one at Dumblederry lane has a breather valve fitted, to vent gas safely into the atmosphere.