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North-South Cycle Superhighway (source TfL on Twitter).jpgCycle Superhighway teething issues being addressed says TfL (+ video)
Transport for London (TfL) says that a picture shared on social media showing part of the new North-South Superhighway being dug up was due to “an isolated drainage problem” and says the repairs were carried out at the contractor’s own expense.
It also confirmed that the route is now fully open from Elephant & Castle to Meymott Street, around 100 metres north of TfL’s headquarters opposite Southwark Underground station.
On Tuesday, Twitter user Charlotte Hindle posted a picture of a section of the Cycle Superhighway, also on Blackfriars Road, being dug up and questioned whether it was a “waste of money.”
What?? Finished section of Super Cycle Highway on Blackfriars Rd @se1 now being dug up??? Waste of money? pic.twitter.com/IpIfZxoyeg
— Charlotte (@cmdhindle) January 5, 2016
But according to the website Mayorwatch, TfL said that the 10 metre long section had been repaired by contractors at their own expense after “engineers noticed pools of water following recent heavy rain.”
TfL’s director of projects and programmes, Nick Fairholme, explained: “This was an isolated drainage problem and has been corrected by the contractors at no additional cost to TfL.”
He added: “The section from Elephant & Castle up to Meymott Street is due to open ahead of schedule later this week.”
In fact, it is now open and today, local news website London SE1 posted a time-lapse video to YouTube of a ride up that part of the Cycle Superhighway.
Meanwhile, work continued over the Christmas and New Year period on the East-West Cycle Superhighway, with Victoria Embankment closed overnight while construction took place.
Simon joined road.cc as news editor in 2009 and is now the site’s community editor, acting as a link between the team producing the content and our readers. A law and languages graduate, published translator and former retail analyst, he has reported on issues as diverse as cycling-related court cases, anti-doping investigations, the latest developments in the bike industry and the sport’s biggest races. Now back in London full-time after 15 years living in Oxford and Cambridge, he loves cycling along the Thames but misses having his former riding buddy, Elodie the miniature schnauzer, in the basket in front of him.
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13 comments
Meanwhile on Wilmslow road, Manchester a supposedly finished and open bike lane has random unsurfaced sections. How many people have crashed unreported there.
I would dearly LOVE to have this problem - you should see what the "super"highway looks light in Leeds-Bradford! We have speedbumps and loose gravel as the surface on our mega cycling infrastructure.
I think the gravel and speed bumps are on the resurfaced canal towpath, not the cycle superhighway. Not that it was a good idea by the Canal & River Trust to put these things on the path.
I would dearly LOVE to have this problem - you should see what the "super"highway looks light in Leeds-Bradford! We have speedbumps and loose gravel as the surface on our mega cycling infrastructure.
London cyclists don't know how good they have got it.
London does well on lots of (non-car) transport things, it's true - but there are also an awful lot more cyclists (including the mayor) to justify this investment. Even before any serious investment in cycling infrastructure, there were 10x more cycle commuting residents in Inner London compared with all of West Yorkshire (2011 Census).
TfL will probably see that the surface is reinstated properly. But wait until BT/Virgin/Thames Water/etc/etc. come along in a couple of weeks...
If it is a London/not-London divide, then what are the city council doing that allows them to get contractors to fix their faults, when the rest of the countries councils sit back with fingers in their ears ignoring complaints.
This is my major complaint with councils, their complete inability to take responsibility for quality of work (and inability to ensure its delivered due to that). Things get done badly and no-one is held responsible, they just get fixed after the fact (if at all) at further expense. Apparently works are supposed to be signed off by council approved agents, but this clearly doesnt happen or if it does then they are clearly not doing it well.
Id love to know how the council pursuaded the contractor to fix their fault. Threat of pulling future contracts, or not being included in future tenders maybe?
Hi STATO
As the author of the MayorWatch piece linked to above, and long-time coverer of TfL, they're actually really very good at ensuring contractors are responsible for remedying faults.
Their contracts make suppliers liable for any failures by default - for example the Oyster card outage from last week saw the contractor cover the entire lost fares revenue so the taxpayer doesn't lose out - so the cycle highway guys won't have had any choice but to come back and do it again at their own expense.
Other public bodies could learn a few lessons from them.
I really hope they do the same on the Victoria Embankment soon. They've installed two speed humps close together by Temple tube station for absolutely no reason whatsoever.
They've done nothing to slow the motorised traffic so why suddenly slow us down?
I saw those too. You don't need speed bumps on a dedicated cycle lane!
A cycle path that is part of a public highway dug up for works. Is this really newsworthy?
They are re-laying a cycle path because of puddles? That'll be the north-south divide in action then
"They are re-laying a cycle path because of puddles? That'll be the London/not-London divide in action then" - fixed it for you
(Seriously - it isn't just North of the Watford Gap that gets ignored - it's anywhere west of Reading, too).
Shame. Hope the contractor replaces it as quick as they dug it up!