A decision on the planning application for the new ‘iconic’ foot bridge to replace the town centre railway crossing was made on Wednesday 24 October.
Jumble Lane crossing is due to be closed by Network Rail in March 2019 with a temporary bridge in place.
At a recent meeting of Barnsley Civic Trust, Sarah McHale from Barnsley Council told us that the new permanent bridge is designed by Renato Benedetti (Benadetti Architects) who also designed the new bridge in Castleford. The structure cost is estimated at £5m with £2m from Network Rail and £3m from BMBC.
The bridge will be ‘stunningly’ lit at night and the bridge deck is a 1.8 meter deep steel channel wide enough to cope with large flows on match days.
It has to be high enough for electrification and wide enough for platform extension in case these are planned in the future.
The main points raised at the Barnsley Civic Trust meeting were the nature of the deck and not being able to see out of it, the nature of fencing to the railway (Network Rail insisting on palisade), and the look of the canopy to the ‘funicular’ lift at either side of the bridge for people with disabilities and pushchairs etc.
The meeting, however, liked the bridge and thought that it has come a long way from its first incarnation.
Barnsley Civic Trust conveyed these views to the council and in addition we commented that it appears from the positioning of the ‘funicular lift’ on the opposite sides of the bridge at both ends that people in wheel chairs and cyclist will have to cross from one side of the bridge to the other, cutting across the route that everyone else will take. This can’t be right, can it?