Milton Park installs new cycle and foot bridge linking to Abingdon and Oxford

A new bridge for cyclists and pedestrians connecting Milton Park to Abingdon and Oxford has been safely moved into place.

The new bridge is part of Milton Park’s 2040 Vision to continue to promote sustainable transport modes to and from work to help improve foot and cycle connectivity while reducing car use reliance.

A brand new footpath and cycleway route totalling 0.62 miles running north-south length at Milton Park from Backhill Tunnel to Kelaart’s Field was opened in August this year.

Oxfordshire County Council, with their contractor Skanska, have been busy working on the section across Kelaart’s Field to Milton Road in Sutton Courtenay to greatly improve the Park’s links to Abingdon and Oxford making it easier to choose cycling.

Now with the new bridge, Milton Park is connected to Oxfordshire County Council’s scheme.

Since October 2018, Milton Park, working in partnership with Oxfordshire County Council’s sustainable and travel and public health teams, has been using Vivacity Labs’ sensors to monitor traffic flows to provide anonymised data on the movement patterns of other road users, primarily vehicles. There are six traffic sensors installed around Milton Park which are operated by Vivacity Labs. One of the sensors is now positioned to track instances of pedestrians and cyclists using the new bridge which will help to understand how and when it is being used.

Veronica Reynolds, sustainable travel advisor, Milton Park said: “Now that the bridge is in, we are connected! Our data continues to show that cycling has never been so popular at the Park with September figures showing that cycling is 40% above pre-first lockdown rates. We will continue to do all we can to encourage cycling, scooting and walking into work. The public health value of this kind of new infrastructure usually more than covers the cost of implementation so we can’t wait to see the bridge and paths being used.

“A big thank you to Chris Kimber-Nickelson, senior development manager at Milton Park, Savills for their project management, Southern Construction & Surfacing our contractor, and Anthony Stiff from ASA Landscape Architects for all their hard work to deliver this brilliant piece of infrastructure that will help people and their journeys to and from the Park.”

Watch the new bridge being lowered into place…