Sustrans' Connect2 is two
Two years ago, Sustrans' Connect2 won a national TV vote bringing money from the Big Lottery Fund to 79 communities across the UK, to provide essential, safer and enriching routes for pedestrians and cyclists. The schemes are making great headway with local communities helping shape, design and support the projects. Neighbourhoods are working alongside local authorities and other partners to ensure that these vital local travel links become a reality.
In Dumfries, the viaduct over the river Nith was opened last year so that the 25,000 people living within a mile of the scheme can now walk or cycle to school, work or the town centre. Construction has begun on providing key travel links from Bristol to North Somerset, and along the Bridgewater Canal at Sale in Cheshire. At Cheshunt in Hertfordshire, the local schools are looking forward to a safer route being in place by Spring and in Cardiff the new bridge connecting the city centre to Penarth is emerging from the water and will complete a leisure and commuter route that will transform residents' everyday travel.
In Bradford, the innovative bridge designs have been completed and this route will transform local transport in the city. Also at Rhyl in North Wales, the designs for a bridge over the River Clwyd have been approved and this route will provide a much safer way to travel within the town and will breathe new life into local tourism as it connects the town to the coastal path.
Key bridges have been built and opened on routes across the UK including ones at Watermead Park in Leicestershire, Tower Hamlets in London, and Newtownabbey in Northern Ireland. These bridges provide valuable links for people to access amenities and leisure facilities without having to use their cars.
Meanwhile, in Worcester the city centre routes will soon include the completed Diglis bridge over the river Severn, and at Dartford, work to reconnect people to the shops, schools and green spaces is underway and this Darent Valley Path has won a civil engineering award.
Communities are also involved in creating public art along the routes in the form of Portrait Benches which will celebrate local icons and reflect the individual nature of each scheme.
The Connect2 landscape has begun to take shape across the UK with 30 schemes already under construction to help people broaden their travel options in ways that benefit their health and their environment.