We’re pleased to see the new cycle route around the SmartParc campus in Spondon (the old Celanese site) has now been opened.
The route provides a very useful connection between Fernhook Avenue (to link to the Riverside path) and Celanese Road (near to Spondon station).
The route has been built to be 3m wide with a surface of tarmac covered by loose stone. Throughout the route there are a number of benches and litter bins. A lot of new trees have been planted and, once these have grown, this will be a very scenic and flat route.
The route has been built for over a year but has been waiting for other building work on site to complete before opening. Unfortunately this means that some maintenance is already needed with the tarmac surface uneven in places and, at one point, suffering from a large crack.
At each end of the route, barriers have been put in place – I think to prevent cyclists emerging at speed. Unfortunately these don’t meet current guidelines and will be an obstacle to some path users with mobility issues or vehicles that aren’t sufficiently maneuverable.
Access to the new route from the Riverside path means leaving the Riverside to reach Fernhook Avenue and then taking the bridge over the Derwent into the logistics park. There is a good quality pedestrian/cycle route on one side of the road. The access is then found by crossing the road. Beware of many large lorries when crossing the road although these do seem to drive slowly due to the road restrictions and speed limits.
OpenStreetMap has been updated and, as this provides the mapping and routing information for almost all the cycle routing apps (e.g. Strava, Komoot, cycle.travel, MapMyRIde, …) you can expect to see the routing start using this new route as the apps update their data (typically a few weeks).
The provision of this new route was a requirement for development of the Celanese site so well done to the developers for delivering their commitment with a good quality solution and well done to Derby City Council for insisting on this condition of planning.