Plans for another section of huge cycle route through Sandwell revealed

The section of the multi-million-pound route would run from Burnt Tree in Dudley along Wolverhampton Road in Tividale.

The huge active travel route will eventually join Wolverhampton and Dudley with parts of Sandwell and Birmingham.

Sandwell Council’s cabinet will discuss the latest part of the project at a meeting on February 7.

The current aim is to build the new cycle route along the A4123 to the Lower City Road junction next to Ormiston Sandwell Community Academy in the next 12 months.

The route would then continue along Wolverhampton Road and join Hagley Road West junction in Quinton, but that work would not be finished until 2027.

As well as new cycle routes, bus lanes, new crossings and updated signals are also proposed for parts of the route.

A ‘mobility hub’ at the Hagley Road West junction, with electric vehicle charging points, cycle parking and bike hire docks, has also been suggested.

The council said it is also reviewing whether the speed limits need to be reduced along certain sections of the A4123.

The whole project currently has £29 million from government transport funding handed to the West Midlands Combined Authority – but it is expected to cost much more.

The section from Dudley through Tividale is expected to cost £1.2m according to Sandwell Council.

Time is already ticking on the work with the mammoth task needing to be finished by 2027 to avoid the ever-increasing risk of the funding being withdrawn.

Sandwell Council said it has been carrying out a ‘prioritisation exercise’ to determine which sections of the active travel route can be built in time, but it appears the council would then have to live ‘hand-to-mouth’ and wait for more money before the route is fully connected.

The money would have to come from the government or the West Midlands Combined Authority according to the cabinet papers.

The new part of the route would add to a growing network of cycle paths and bus lanes running from Wolverhampton to Dudley through Sandwell.

Sandwell Council’s cabinet backed a move to build a new cycle route from Great Bridge in Tipton to Dudley along Dudley Port at the end of last year.

And earlier this month, councillors also approved a move to build a new cycle lane in Smethwick from the town’s two railway stations to the new Midland Metropolitan University Hospital via Soho Way and Grove Lane towards Birmingham.