From Hackney cycling groups:
I went up to Eastway yesterday afternoon with Jonathan Tan of Hackney
Streetscene to have a look.
The Olympics Delivery Authority has demolished the old business centre
on the south side, and is in the process of setting that area up as the
main entry and exit point for construction and delivery vehicles, which
will come straight off the A12 (AKA the M11 Link Road) and onto the
site. There will be about 1500 such vehicle movements here per day.
Those who are familiar with Eastway will know that it is effectively
one-way westbound for motors between the Lee interchange and Lee
Conservancy Road, though in fact it is fully two-way up until about half
way along, in order to permit egress east from the old business centre.
A few years after the opening of the abominable M11 Link Road, we
achieved a small consolation in the form of a contra-flow for cycle
traffic eastbound on the one-way section of Eastway.
It's not a
beautiful ride along there to Leyton via the Lee interchange and
Ruckholt Road, but at least it's direct.
It has since been designated as
a link of the London Cycle Network 'Plus', and is quite well used.
The current problem is that a few days ago the ODA's contractors,
wishing to give themselves access to make alterations to the southern
kerbline of Eastway and the perimeter of the land, narrowed the
carriageway on the two-way section, making it one-way only, apparently
oblivious to the fact that cycle traffic has been entitled to use
Eastway eastbound for a decade or more. The presence of blue cycle signs
on the lampposts in the easterly direction seems not to have provided
the necessary clue.
At first no warning of the suspension of two-way working was given to
eastbound cyclists, who proceeded out of the contraflow lane to find
motors coming at them head-on on the wrong side of the road, as Philip
described.
Following a couple of near misses and urgent complaints, the
contractors have put up signs indicating the suspension of the
"cycleway" (even though it's actually fully two-way from that point) and
instructing cyclists to dismount. Cyclists and pedestrians are then
expected to cross the road at that point, where a portion of the
carriageway has been somewhat economically coned off to permit onward
travel to the interchange.
It should be noted that Eastway is a Hackney borough road, so the ODA
has acted outside its powers and indeed unlawfully here. To suspend
two-way working, a traffic order would have to be made by the highway
authority, with the statutorily required public notice period. LB
Hackney, as the highway authority, would be within its rights to
prosecute. As things stand, it has protested in strong terms to the ODA,
but seems minded to allow the temporary arrangements to continue subject
to improvements.
Jonathan and I noted a number of signing and layout changes that should
be made urgently to the temporary arrangements, which as I mentioned in
my previous message on this subject are only due to stay in place until
6th May.
We also looked at and discussed the layout which is planned to be in
place after that date. The footway cycle tracks around the west side of
the Lee Interchange are to be suspended for the duration of the Olympics
construction, and those who like to use that kind of facility will be
directed via tracks on the east side of the interchange instead.
The
main crunch points will of course be the crossovers of the southern
footway of Eastway where all these trucks will enter and exit the site.
The designers have done their best to direct peds and cyclists across
the shortest part of these crossovers, but it is still not pretty, and a
banksman permanently in position at each crossover might not be a bad
idea, given the huge number of movements -- one every 30 seconds during
the working day -- and the aim of zero Olympics construction
traffic-related casualties.
The only suggestions I had to add to the post-6th May plans related to
signage, together with some carriageway markings on certain lanes of the
Lee interchange to make it clear where on-carriageway cycle traffic
generally needs to go. There's not much scope for material changes to
the plan otherwise unfortunately.
However I did point out to Jonathan the long-neglected deficiencies of
the existing contra-flow facility, again mainly relating to signing and
carriageway markings.
We have previously ensured that all of these have
been noted in the CRISP report for LCN+ Link 250, so theoretically they
should be in line for rectification in due course before the LCN+
theoretical completion date of 2010, but I suggested to Jonathan that
the current fiasco would seem to provide a good opportunity to get the
whole lot fixed at once, with the ODA paying for it by way of penance.
So go on Hackney, if you can do it to Nike, you can do it to the ODA.
Make them pay up!
Cheers,
Trevor
The road's here:
http://www.streetmap.co.uk/newmap.s...=4&ar=Y&mapp=newmap.srf&searchp=newsearch.srf
I went up to Eastway yesterday afternoon with Jonathan Tan of Hackney
Streetscene to have a look.
The Olympics Delivery Authority has demolished the old business centre
on the south side, and is in the process of setting that area up as the
main entry and exit point for construction and delivery vehicles, which
will come straight off the A12 (AKA the M11 Link Road) and onto the
site. There will be about 1500 such vehicle movements here per day.
Those who are familiar with Eastway will know that it is effectively
one-way westbound for motors between the Lee interchange and Lee
Conservancy Road, though in fact it is fully two-way up until about half
way along, in order to permit egress east from the old business centre.
A few years after the opening of the abominable M11 Link Road, we
achieved a small consolation in the form of a contra-flow for cycle
traffic eastbound on the one-way section of Eastway.
It's not a
beautiful ride along there to Leyton via the Lee interchange and
Ruckholt Road, but at least it's direct.
It has since been designated as
a link of the London Cycle Network 'Plus', and is quite well used.
The current problem is that a few days ago the ODA's contractors,
wishing to give themselves access to make alterations to the southern
kerbline of Eastway and the perimeter of the land, narrowed the
carriageway on the two-way section, making it one-way only, apparently
oblivious to the fact that cycle traffic has been entitled to use
Eastway eastbound for a decade or more. The presence of blue cycle signs
on the lampposts in the easterly direction seems not to have provided
the necessary clue.
At first no warning of the suspension of two-way working was given to
eastbound cyclists, who proceeded out of the contraflow lane to find
motors coming at them head-on on the wrong side of the road, as Philip
described.
Following a couple of near misses and urgent complaints, the
contractors have put up signs indicating the suspension of the
"cycleway" (even though it's actually fully two-way from that point) and
instructing cyclists to dismount. Cyclists and pedestrians are then
expected to cross the road at that point, where a portion of the
carriageway has been somewhat economically coned off to permit onward
travel to the interchange.
It should be noted that Eastway is a Hackney borough road, so the ODA
has acted outside its powers and indeed unlawfully here. To suspend
two-way working, a traffic order would have to be made by the highway
authority, with the statutorily required public notice period. LB
Hackney, as the highway authority, would be within its rights to
prosecute. As things stand, it has protested in strong terms to the ODA,
but seems minded to allow the temporary arrangements to continue subject
to improvements.
Jonathan and I noted a number of signing and layout changes that should
be made urgently to the temporary arrangements, which as I mentioned in
my previous message on this subject are only due to stay in place until
6th May.
We also looked at and discussed the layout which is planned to be in
place after that date. The footway cycle tracks around the west side of
the Lee Interchange are to be suspended for the duration of the Olympics
construction, and those who like to use that kind of facility will be
directed via tracks on the east side of the interchange instead.
The
main crunch points will of course be the crossovers of the southern
footway of Eastway where all these trucks will enter and exit the site.
The designers have done their best to direct peds and cyclists across
the shortest part of these crossovers, but it is still not pretty, and a
banksman permanently in position at each crossover might not be a bad
idea, given the huge number of movements -- one every 30 seconds during
the working day -- and the aim of zero Olympics construction
traffic-related casualties.
The only suggestions I had to add to the post-6th May plans related to
signage, together with some carriageway markings on certain lanes of the
Lee interchange to make it clear where on-carriageway cycle traffic
generally needs to go. There's not much scope for material changes to
the plan otherwise unfortunately.
However I did point out to Jonathan the long-neglected deficiencies of
the existing contra-flow facility, again mainly relating to signing and
carriageway markings.
We have previously ensured that all of these have
been noted in the CRISP report for LCN+ Link 250, so theoretically they
should be in line for rectification in due course before the LCN+
theoretical completion date of 2010, but I suggested to Jonathan that
the current fiasco would seem to provide a good opportunity to get the
whole lot fixed at once, with the ODA paying for it by way of penance.
So go on Hackney, if you can do it to Nike, you can do it to the ODA.
Make them pay up!
Cheers,
Trevor
The road's here:
http://www.streetmap.co.uk/newmap.s...=4&ar=Y&mapp=newmap.srf&searchp=newsearch.srf
