A mile-long road cycling track will be one of the focal points of what is being billed as the UK’s largest urban park to be created in more than a century as part of the legacy of the 2012 Olympic Games.
The six metre wide track circuit will be an integral part of the parklands around the Olympic velodrome, and will be equipped with low UV lighting to allow use throughout the year and in the evenings. Plans also include six kilometres of off-road mountain bike tracks, and a cycle path network across the park that will include part of National Route 1.
The new road cycle track will provide a long-term replacement to the former Eastway Cycle Track, located on the site where the velodrome is currently being built.
Following the closure of the popular circuit in November 2006, users had to wait nearly 18 months for alternative facilities to be opened in outer London at the Redbridge Cycling Centre at Hog Hill, Hainault following a long-running campaign by the Eastway Users Group to find an alternative site.
The 250-acre park, which in the long term will be managed by the Olympic Park Legacy Committee, will also include “hanging gardens” thirty feet above ground level on the bridge linking it to Stratford City, a tree-lined avenue modelled on The Mall and Birdcage Walk in Central London, and wetlands that will provide a habitat to protected bird species.
Sebastian Coe, Chairman of the London Organising Committee for the Olympic Games, said: “With a little over two years to go until the Olympic and Paralympic Games come to London, the further regeneration of east London continues apace and our vision of a new urban parkland is developing before our eyes. After the Games have gone, an incredible legacy will be left – not least a family-friendly park with state of the art sporting facilities transforming this area for London, creating and serving new communities for generations to come.”
Olympic Delivery Authority Project Sponsor John Hopkins added: “Nearby Victoria Park was one of the world’s first public parks opened in 1845. We have designed the Olympic Park parklands to be one of the world’s first parks responding to the challenges of sustainability and climate change, creating the setting not only for a fantastic Olympic and Paralympic Games, but also for liveable neighbourhoods well into the future.”
To be fair, those Southend sheds are pretty ugly. I hope that they are useful for locals, rather than just winding up the anti-cycling brigade.
The valves are a weak point on Revoloop tubes. I've had a number of them fail at the valve, generally after a few hundred miles. If you look...
The truth is than in the Netherlands that I saw them, they were indeed a bit huge for cycle infra. However they were rather rare.
Race you there!
Those calipers arent the prettiest. Makes them look like Post-mount.
I'm all for a much more socialist approach to the sorts of things you mention, where there are clear market failures and a need for decent...
Zorbing balls - if it saves just one life
12 corners in just over 2km is a terrifying prospect if it rains!
I think it's:...
As it's often said -'the way to justify the building of a bridge is not too count the number of people swimming the crocodile infested river!'