National Route 1 / Eurovelo 12 closures/diversion Feb 2020 King's Lynn

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mjr

Comfy armchair to one person & a plank to the next
Network Rail are working on the Tennyson Level Crossing in King's Lynn which is used by National Route 1 / Eurovelo 12. It will be completely closed (no motorists, no cyclists, no walkers, no nothing) on two weekends: 1/2 Feb and 22/23 Feb, from midnight Friday to 4am Monday.

The official signed diversion (AFAIK) is possible on a bike but will add time and distance to your journey and is via an industrial estate road. That's usually quiet at weekends but it contains slalom gates, it isn't beautiful and if you know in advance, through riders can divert onto cycleways and quiet roads through residential and retail areas and avoid the extra distance.

More detail and any updates are/will be at https://www.klwnbug.co.uk/2020/01/23/tennyson-level-crossing-closures-1-2-feb-and-22-23-feb-2020/
 

Glow worm

Legendary Member
Location
Near Newmarket
Thanks for the heads up. I'll prob risk Railway Rd, Austin St/ Gaywood Road - wish me luck!
That will cause even more traffic chaos in town than usual.I guess at least the traffic won't be moving very fast.
 
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mjr

mjr

Comfy armchair to one person & a plank to the next
Thanks for the heads up. I'll prob risk Railway Rd, Austin St/ Gaywood Road - wish me luck!
That will cause even more traffic chaos in town than usual.I guess at least the traffic won't be moving very fast.
Nah, it's often noticeable how conspicuously absent any traffic chaos is during these closures. It's almost like we don't actually need all these roads left open to motorists :whistle:

Good luck but I really don't understand anyone riding the awful polluted Railway Road racetrack and the badly-designed Austin Street traffic lights in the same journey. If you're riding through, why not simply go via the Docks? (South Quay, King St, TMP, North St, JFK Rd, Bawsey Drain Path - marked on some maps as local route 6.) Or if your destination is Gaywood: County Ct Rd, contraflow cycleway past the station front, Morrisons access road to Highgate and then right turn onto Littleport St / Gaywood Rd. The slow-down-for-walkers sections past the retail park or rail station are usually more than made up for by bypassing all those flow-control traffic lights on the one-way loop and out to Gaywood.
 

Glow worm

Legendary Member
Location
Near Newmarket
Nah, it's often noticeable how conspicuously absent any traffic chaos is during these closures. It's almost like we don't actually need all these roads left open to motorists :whistle:

Good luck but I really don't understand anyone riding the awful polluted Railway Road racetrack and the badly-designed Austin Street traffic lights in the same journey. If you're riding through, why not simply go via the Docks? (South Quay, King St, TMP, North St, JFK Rd, Bawsey Drain Path - marked on some maps as local route 6.) Or if your destination is Gaywood: County Ct Rd, contraflow cycleway past the station front, Morrisons access road to Highgate and then right turn onto Littleport St / Gaywood Rd. The slow-down-for-walkers sections past the retail park or rail station are usually more than made up for by bypassing all those flow-control traffic lights on the one-way loop and out to Gaywood.

If they'd close Tennyson permanently to motor traffic it would be a dream! A few years ago in Cambridge, they closed the v busy Brooklands Avenue for works and predicted mayhem never materialised. I guess people found other ways of getting about- who'd have thought!
My destination is North Creake, so although your suggested route is a little out of the way for that route, it sounds much more pleasant !
 
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mjr

mjr

Comfy armchair to one person & a plank to the next
My destination is North Creake, so although your suggested route is a little out of the way for that route, it sounds much more pleasant !
If you're entering town on the riverside and leaving through South Wootton / Castle Rising, going along South Quay, North Street and the Bawsey Drain path rejoins Route 1 at Lynnsport and doesn't add actually anything compared to going over Tennyson - both 2.8 miles from the Nar to the crossing of Edward Benefer Way. It's just a bit narrower in places than the wide ways of the Walks. You could cut a whole 0.1 miles off by using Estuary Road and the west end of Eddie Bennie but the road is horrible and the cycleway is poor.

Pleasant? That depends what the locals have done on the section just north of the town centre ;) but you'd ride past Marriott's Warehouse, the Customs House, Shakespeare Guildhall, Corn Exchange, Tudor Rose and St Nicholas Chapel which are always beautiful. If it wasn't for the missing link between North Street and the Bawsey Drain, the capacity-limiting width and missing out The Walks and the stations, there would be a very good argument to divert National 1 that way :smile:
 
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