Salford’s iconic Chapel Street is set for a £4 million revamp as part of new cycling and walking measures.
It’s all designed to ‘transform a section of Chapel Street into an attractive and people focused route’, transport bosses say.
The money is coming from the Mayor’s Cycling and Walking Challenge Fund (MCF), a £5.4 million pot of cash which will be shared between Bury and Salford.
The Chapel Street East project takes the lions’ share of the funding, which will be used to build a new continuous footway and a terraced cycle track separated from traffic.
There will also be new crossing facilities installed, along with new paving and street furniture, TfGM says.
“This is welcome news,” Salford councillor Mike McCusker said. “We need to create safe and pleasant routes for people to walk and cycle to encourage people to switch from cars to foot and pedal power, particularly for short journeys, and help ease congestion on major routes.”
Bury is also in line for a major renovation.
The Fishpool plan in the town aims to increase the number of walking and cycling trips in the neighbourhood area.
That £1.1 million element is phase one of the project, with the second section seeing improvements to cycling and walking connections between Bury town centre and Bury interchange.
When complete, the new infrastructure will enable a network of cycling and walking routes to support trips by active travel between Bury town centre and the residential areas of Fishpool and Gigg.
Coun Kevin Peel, Deputy Cabinet Member for the Environment at Bury Council, said he was ‘excited’ about the plans.
He explained: “We're excited to be delivering this ambitious scheme, connecting communities in East Bury to retail, leisure and employment sites in Bury town centre and at Pilsworth, and we hope to see many more residents opting to walk or cycle as a result."
Andy Burnham, Mayor for Greater Manchester, added: “Our ambition is to create the largest cycling and walking network in the UK, right here in Greater Manchester.
“To do that — and to make active travel the number one choice for travelling to work to school or to the shops – we’re investing in cycling and walking routes that are safe and accessible for all, exactly like these two schemes in Bury and Salford.”
