The Anglesea Road, Portsmouth footbridge was demolished almost 14 years ago when a lorry crashed into it. Since then, only the stairs and ramps leading up the old bridge remain closed off to the public.
I travel this piece of road daily. I recently nearly killed a pedestrian as they blindly followed the person in front of them across the road - without looking up from their mobile. I witness similar close calls regularly and it is only a matter of time before a fatality happens.
Thousands of people cross that road during the day – most of whom are students from the University of Portsmouth, but also commuters from the ferry and visitors to and from Gunwharf.
I am calling for the bridge to be reinstated - it can only be a matter of time before someone is killed at this crossing. Previous calls to the council to reinstate the bridge have not succeeded.
This ePetition ran from 30/10/2017 to 18/12/2017 and has now finished.
Nobody signed this ePetition.
The petition on rebuilding Anglesea Road Footbridge received 0 signatures therefore no further action will be taken in terms of it being debated at a council meeting.
At present, there are two signalled crossing points; one to the north and one to the south of Park Road. The north crossing struggles to take the number of pedestrians that currently use it.
In the 1980s a pedestrian overbridge was constructed across Anglesea Road, north of its junction with Park Road. This bridge was struck several times by HGVs as they passed below, and eventually the bridge was removed entirely.
The option to replace the bridge with another has been considered but a new bridge would not meet Equalities Impact Assessment without the full demolition and rebuild of the stairs, abutments and ramps. This would be a time consuming and expensive option and would leave the access to the north of the university building (King Henry Building) as restricted and dark; resulting in a risk of crime. Further, a new bridge would not, in itself, reduce the risk of pedestrian accidents at ground level.
Removal of the abutments and ramp would enable a much more spacious and safer crossing to be constructed; centred to the south of Park Road. This would also enable improved traffic and pedestrian managed flows and a significantly reduced risk of pedestrian near misses and fatalities.
In summary, an improved ground level crossing and the removal of the old bridge abutments has the desired effect of reducing risk of accidents while providing considerable improvements for pedestrians, cyclists motorists alike both at the crossing and at its approaches.
It is PCC's intention to start construction on this new and improved crossing in early 2018.