Crossings to be upgraded on popular cycle route

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Four crossings are to be upgraded on a popular cycling and walking route between Backwell, Nailsea and Bristol.

The Festival Way is the most successful active travel corridor in North Somerset with about 1,600 leisure and commuter trips a day on foot and by bicycle.

It connects Backwell and Nailsea to Bristol and also links the villages of Long Ashton and Flax Bourton to the local secondary schools.

The improvements will see four key crossings upgraded to enhance safety and reduce the speed limit on Backwell Bow and Backwell Common where around 40 per cent of users are pedestrians or bicycles.

Improved access and safety will benefit all users, making the route more visible and attractive to use.

The crossings are located at:

  • Station Road in Flax Bourton
  • Backwell Bow in Backwell
  • Lodge Lane in Nailsea
  • Trendlewood Way in Nailsea

The work on the crossings will include:

  • Improved visibility through vegetation maintenance and kerb realignments
  • Surface treatments to increase awareness of the crossings
  • Improved signage and wayfinding
  • A new parallel crossing on Trendlewood Way in Nailsea.

Cllr Hannah Young, North Somerset Council's executive member with responsibility for active travel said: "This is an extremely popular route that is used heavily each day by pedestrians and cyclists. These changes will further enhance the route and increase safety. 

"Unfortunately it won’t be possible to leave the path open during the improvement, but the length of the works will be minimised to reduce disruption. We would ask people to be patient while the improvements are completed."

The work will start in late February.