Monday 24 September 2012

£1.5m Boost for Towpath improvements


towpath


Cyclists and pedestrians using the Bridgewater Canal towpath are to benefit from a £1.5 million funding boost, after a successful bid for funding by Trafford Council and Transport for Greater Manchester to deliver the next three phases of the Bridgewater Way.

The grant, from the Department for Transport's Local Sustainable Transport Fund, will pay for upgrades to another five miles of the Trafford towpath and a number of improvements to access points and routes to the canal over the next couple of years. This will include sections between Trafford Park and Manchester United. This will build on the recent work by Trafford Council, Peel and the sustainable transport charity Sustrans, which has put in place a major upgrade to around three miles of the canal tow path between Sale and Stretford. This has been hugely successful and has seen a massive increase in the numbers of walkers and cyclists using the towpath.

Councillor Andrew Fender, Chair of the Transport for Greater Manchester Committee, said: "This is a great example of the improvements we're going to be delivering across Greater Manchester through our LSTF programme to encourage more people to take up active ways of travelling. The work that's already been done to improve the Bridgewater Way towpaths has proved to be really successful, so this latest investment will build on that and I look forward to the work getting under way soon."


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