Active Travel – Dewsbury Riverside

Active Travel by walking or cycling from the Dewsbury Riverside development to the town centre has been the subject of earlier posts as we sought to bring attention to the disconnected nature of the existing footpaths and cycleways. Click here for the earlier post on Dewsbury Riverside and a second on  Dewsbury Riverside to the town centre.

The approval of the Transpennine Route Upgrade and the start of work on the ground has opened an opportunity to overcome the major obstacle of the river crossing while also injecting a high level of urgency in communicating this possibility to the planners and to Network Rail before design work is completed.  The opportunity arises because much of the ground in the area of concern will be reconfigured by the construction of a new viaduct (named the Baker Viaduct.  Must find out why?) across the River Calder and the Calder and Hebble canal as the line is rerouted in order to enable trains to run faster.  Artists impressions of the new viaduct in place can be found on the TRUpgrade website.

Both the bridges over the River Calder and the canal were designed and constructed in the 'Heroic' period of railway construction between 1950 and 1850 in the midst of the Industrial Revolution.  They are Grade ll listed and have heritage value and will be left standing as a result

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This is a golden opportunity to repurpose this substantial river crossing and for the council and TRU to cooperate to achieve maximum benefit for minimum cost for both. This opportunity will never occur again. 

The following map identifies the concept of utilising the bridges crossing the River Calder and the Calder & Hebble canal to provide a river crossing to enable Active Travel between Dewsbury Riverside development and the town centre.

The map shows two desire lines in grey from the new Ravensthorpe station and from the Forge Lane/Ravensthorpe Road junction into Dewsbury town centre .  These are likely to be the routes chosen by the future residents of Riverside, estimated at approx 10,000 occupying 4,000 houses who choose or can be encouraged by an attractive route to walk or cycle into Dewsbury town centre. 

Map showing Desire LInes (for the planners) aka the shortest distance between two points (for the rest of us)  

• Existing routes that are cycleable (though still deficient in many ways) are in deep purple.  
• Footpaths that might be upgraded but provide a proven right of way are in pale purple. One starts at the Forge Lane junction.
• Heritage bridges are in red
• Work required to enable the heritage bridges to provide a useful and continuing benefit to the community are in pale green.  This consists of three access ramps to overcome height differences.

Assumptions

1. The council wishes to achieve the best possible benefit from Active Travel at minimum cost.
2. The basic premise of the LTN 1/20 standard is to separate cyclists and pedestrians from vehicle traffic.
3. The 'obvious' route that ignores this premise is on the road along Forge Lane and Savile Road. This ignores the potential traffic growth on Forge Lane, ignores the existing congestion on Savile Road, ignores the deathtrap junction at the Thornhill Road junction and fails to take advantage of the single green corridor into town that is available alongside the river.  The section of cycleway installed by Dewsbury Sand and Gravel as a requirement for them to obtain planning permission for extracton on the site terminating in Forge Lane demonstrates the result of failing to plan adequately as it does not connect to Route 69 due to the height of the embankment and is largely unused.

Having walked or cycled the Forge Lane/Savile Road route many times since the usual Route 69 was closed by the works in progress I can confirm that money spent on this route will be wasted as it will not attract people to Active Travel.

The principal issue is that the existing routes are at ground/river level while the rail bridges are considerably higher and access ramps are required with a gradient suitable for the elderly, young mothers with buggies, wheelchair users and cyclists.  Well designed access ramps will become an architectural feature of the landscape and contribute to turning this area of the riverbank into a recreational area.

Recognising the financial constraints applicable to everybody I do not believe it is necessary to deliver completed routes at this time.  The objective in cooperation with TRU should be to design and build any changes required to the bridge/viaduct infrastructure now so that it does not become a problem in the future.  The council and WYCA can prioritise further development to connect up the whole route at some future date in accordance with relevant policies and plans. 

Requirements - green flags on the map

1. Access ramp from the north end of the river bridge to connect to the existing cycling route 69 into the town centre. 
2. Access ramp from route 69 up to the south end of the river bridge.
3. Access from the riverside towpath up to the canal bridge (unless the embankment between canal and river bridges is removed)

As both TRU and the council will be concerned about making the heritage bridges safe then spending money on a constructive purpose would presumably be preferable to spending it on safety fencing and warning signs that contribute nothing to the community.

This post is published as a contribution from the community as a means to make it as easy as possible for planners and all those involved with TRU to quickly grasp that the heritage bridges are a golden opportunity to create an attractive Active Travel route between the largest residential development in Kirklees and its host town of Dewsbury.