Work starts today (March 8) a brand-new bike “superhighway” which will cut journey times for cyclists and provide fast access to different parts of Cambridge.
The “Chisholm Trail” bike route, which links up the CB4 district and the new Cambridge North railway station in the north with Cambridge’s main railway station and the area around Rustat Road in the south, has been in the pipeline since at least 1998.
After decades of campaigning, and a lot of planning work, the first sections are now being built, with hopes parts of the trail could be open and operational this year.
Jim Chisholm, the transport campaigner after whom the route is named, said the route will help thousands more cyclists access work and other important parts of Cambridge without having to resort to cars.
Mr Chisholm said proposed new housing in the northern fringe of the city, as well as on the new “Wing” development would mean even more people would benefit from the route than had first been anticipated.
Work starting
Tomorrow (March 8) the Greater Cambridge Partnership, which is helping to deliver the project, will begin work on a section of the trail through Ditton Meadows which will ultimately link up a new bridge over the River Cam just south of the new Cambridge North station, with Newmarket Road.
At Newmarket Road, a new underpass will take the route under the busy route, through Coldham’s Common, to join up with Cromwell Road. From there, the route will move onto land next to the railway, passing under Mill Road bridge, to the station.
The assembly heard the construction of the underpass is anticipated to take place in the autumn this year, and that Newmarket Road will be shut for “several days” while work is carried out. Work on the second phase of the route is expected to begin during the summer.
There have, however, been hold ups with the scheme. Last week it was revealed "lizards" near Barnwell Lake would prolong disruption while the Newmarket Road underpass is installed because the favoured method of sliding in a "box culvert" will not now work without disturbing the reptiles' habitat.
A report which went before the GCP’s joint assembly last week noted that, while the original financial allocation for the scheme, which was agreed in 2015, was £8.4million, the project is now estimated to cost £14.3million.
On March 20, the GCP board will be asked to acknowledge the progress made so far in phase one of the project, and approve increasing the budget to match the final estimates.
The whole route is still anticipated to be fully open and ready to use in 2022.
The whole route is only a couple of miles long and Mr Chisholm said most cyclists would be able to ride it easily within 15 minutes.
