Description:
One of Glasgow's most notorious landmarks is set to be
completed, 40 years after construction began.
The 'Bridge to Nowhere' is a pedestrian link over the M8
motorway at Anderston, but it was never finished in the 1970's and
ended about 40ft in the air behind the Hilton Hotel.
The project with Glasgow City Council, the charity Sustrans
and Raynesway Construction has completed the link from
Kelvingrove Park to the city centre. This will enable people
from Anderston to travel by foot into the city centre, and use the
wider network of paths which link to it.
The bridge will be renamed, although the new name and a method
for deciding it, is yet to be revealed by the Council.
The project is part of wider plans to improve cycling across the
city, with new cycle routes being planned to link Glasgow Green
with a number of key destinations in the east end of the city,
including Commonwealth Games venues. A new on-road segregated
two-way cycle way was opened in the east end of Glasgow in October
2012.
As part of the project there will also be a new 'portrait bench'
allowing people to sit alongside steel representations of
naturalist and hillwalker Tom Weir, trade union activist Jimmy Reid
and inventor James Watt, who harnessed steam technology.
Glasgow City Council are hopeful that the bridge will help to
boost Glasgow's cycling culture, city councillor Archie Graham said
"We hope the new route will prove pivotal in transforming cycling
in Glasgow and form a lasting legacy following the Commonwealth
Games in 2014. The National Cycle Route already runs from
Kelvingrove Park to Anderston and this final link will be the jewel
in the crown."
The Anderson Footbridge was completed in summer 2013.