Shrewsbury's English Bridge to be transformed by cycling scheme

Shrewsbury's English Bridge's road layout will be transformed as part of a £20,000 scheme to allow a better flow of traffic into the gyratory area of the town and also make space for a cycle lane.

The changes will be made next year in a project funded by Shropshire Council in a bid to ease congestion around the bridge, which goes over the River Severn and links the Abbey Foregate area with the town centre.

Last summer council transport bosses coned off one of the two-way lanes going from the town centre to run a trial cycle lane. And today the council said following the pilot scheme the cycle way is to be made permanent.

Samantha Tharme, Shropshire Council's team leader for traffic and transport studies, said: "We are currently revising the design to install cycle lanes on the English Bridge in Shrewsbury. This revised design will address some of the issues observed during the trial last summer.

"A scheme to install these cycle lanes is planned for next year. It won't be the same as the trial, we are altering it to allow better flow of traffic into the gyratory, so that queuing is not a problem.

"The scheme is expected to cost around £20,000 and it will be funded by Shropshire Council.

"There will be a cycle lane on both sides of the English Bridge. This will mean that there will only be two traffic lanes over the bridge, but there will be plenty of room to accommodate queuing traffic before the gyratory."

In the summer of 2008 Shrewsbury was one of 12 towns to be awarded cycling town status by Cycling England. As a result Shrewsbury got £1.8 million of grant funding from the Department for Transport for the next three years. Cycle Shrewsbury is the campaign that Shropshire Council is running with the cycling town funding.

So far cycle paths have been installed throughout the town and leaflets handed out and cycle awareness days held to boost the number of people taking to two wheels.

Shrewsbury was also one of 79 places across the UK chosen to receive Connect2 funding from Sustrans, the sustainable transport charity.

Earlier this week work to finalise a permanent pedestrian crossing refuge in Smithfield Road took place with overnight resurfacing work.

It is part of a Connect2 scheme to link the walking and cycling route along Smithfield Road with Roushill, Raven Meadows and Meadow Place. The crossing has cost about £15,000.

By Emma Kasprzak