Pop-up cycle lanes to be made permanent

Work is to begin this week to convert two pop-up cycle lanes in Liverpool into permanent active travel routes.

Liverpool City Council has appointed A.E. Yates Ltd to upgrade the pop-up lane on Crown Street, as well as create a new cycle lane along Catharine Street, between Caledonia Street and Upper Parliament Street.

The £2 million scheme would see a fully segregated cycle lane on both sides of the carriageway on Catharine Street and connect cyclists to the award-winning segregated lanes on Princes Avenue, which is part of the route through Toxteth to Sefton Park.

The Catharine Street/Crown Street scheme, which is a key element of the Council’s Active Travel programme, will consist of the following improvement works:

• New segregated cycle lane
• New dropped kerbs and tactile paving
• Carriageway reconstruction
• New pedestrian crossing at Catharine Street/Canning Street junction
• Road drainage works
• Road markings

Works will also be undertaken to enhance a second pop-up cycle lane which runs through the city’s Baltic District and out to Otterspool Promenade, one of seven established during the Covid-19 pandemic, with upgrades at the junctions of Jamaica Street, Grafton Street and Kent Street.

Work on both schemes, which are supported by Active Travel England’s Active Travel Fund 2 and the City Region Sustainable Transport Settlement, begins today (Monday, 8 July) and will take an estimated six months to complete, subject to weather conditions.

Construction will be undertaken between the hours of 8am–5.30pm on weekdays only.

Signal upgrades will also be introduced at both the Canning Street and Upper Parliament Street junctions to make them more active travel friendly. To enable this, right-turn manoeuvres will be restricted at the junction of Catharine Street and Upper Parliament Street.

To monitor the effect of these changes an Experimental Traffic Order (ETO) will be introduced. This will be subject to a public consultation once the scheme has completed.

Councillor Dan Barrington, Cabinet member for Transport at Liverpool City Council, said: “We want Liverpool to be a great cycling city, and to do that we need to provide the infrastructure that encourages people to get on their bike.

“This investment will enhance what was temporarily created during Covid and, crucially, will fill in the gaps to provide a seamless journey.

“There’s more to do, which is why we’re investing in more cycle lanes, but the jigsaw pieces are beginning to fall into place and over time all this work will have a huge impact on people’s health and Liverpool’s air quality in the long-term.”

Simon O’Brien, Walking and Cycling Commissioner for Liverpool City Region, said: “It is fantastic to see this new funding being unlocked, to really help us push forward with our plans to help create a network of walking and cycling routes that befits the city.

“We’ve got some great active travel infrastructure, but we need to make sure it’s properly linked up so people feel confident that they can travel easily and safely by bike or on foot – that’s what this funding will help to do.

“These kind of schemes are going to help change the way we think about travelling around our local area.”