New park and ride sites could be set up during the massive restoration of the Tyne Bridge to help ease major traffic jams.
The long-awaited refurbishment of the rusting North East icon could last up to four years and there are worries that the works, which will require the crossing being cut from four to two lanes of traffic, will cause big problems on the region’s roads. Councillors were told on Monday morning that transport bosses could set up new park and ride facilities and put on new bus routes to help reduce the number of cars trying to get in and out of Newcastle city centre, while more people will be encouraged to walk and cycle too.
Listing the possible solutions being considered to alleviate the potential gridlock, Newcastle City Council’s principal engineer Alistair Swan also pledged that access over the bridge for both pedestrians and cyclists would be maintained throughout the works. The Tyne Bridge is used by around 70,000 vehicles every day and Mr Swan added that new studies are being carried out to understand who travels over the grade II* listed landmark and where they come from, with local authority officials also due to reassess that after the start of the new Clean Air Zone tolls at the end of January.
Gateshead Labour councillor John Eagle remarked that drivers in the North East will have “had to live with the pain” of a decade of traffic disruption as a result of a series major roadworks around the region – including at the Silverlink, Testo’s roundabout, and the A1. Hoping for a significant boost in the number of people swapping their cars for public transport when the bridge works begin next year, Gateshead Council transport chief Coun John McElroy asked if operator could put on special offers akin to the upcoming £2 bus and Metro fare cap being brought in this winter.
At the annual meeting of the Newcastle and Gateshead Joint Bridges Committee, Mr Swan replied: “We have had discussions with Nexus and bus operators and they are going away now to look at what they can offer up as changes or interventions to help the situation.”
A detailed inspection of the bridge has confirmed its raft of problems are worse than local councils had first feared – including peeling paintwork, corroding steel, cracked concrete, leaking drains, and damage to its road surface and pavements. A funding package of £41.4m, mostly funded by the Government, to repair both the Tyne Bridge and the Central Motorway was agreed this summer after years of desperate pleas.
But the current inflation crisis means that some of the motorway works could now be delayed or even abandoned, in order to divert cash to the increasingly expensive bridge restoration. Engineers now estimate that it will take between 36 and 42 months to complete the massive refurbishment job, the first major maintenance on the Tyne Bridge for more than two decades, the start date for which has been pushed back to autumn 2023.
Coun McElroy added: “We know this work has to be done for the long term future of the bridge. It is something we have been raising for many, many years now and it is pleasing that we actually got the money. There are difficulties and the pain which will be suffered as the work is undergone, but that is part and parcel of the situation. We should be welcoming this as a committee because it is desperately needed work.”
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