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Mayor of London celebrates ‘final jigsaw piece’ of his £47m cycle ‘Superhighway’

After six months of negotiations, The Mayor of London, Transport for London (TfL) and Royal Parks have reached an agreement on the final section of East-West Cycle Superhighway, with a segregated track by Buckingham Palace.

The new plans for the £47m project provide a trial two-way segregated cycle track on Spur Road, in front of the Queen Victoria Memorial at Buckingham Palace, closing the last gap in the route and providing continuous fully-segregated and protected cycling across central London from Tower Hill, through Parliament Square to Hyde Park Corner and Lancaster Gate.

The will provide a safer route for cyclists through, what the Boris Johnson called “one of central London’s most intimidating gyratories”, which is also one of the Mayor’s 33 “Better Junctions” where major improvements for cyclists have been pledged.

The Mayor, Boris Johnson, said: “This is the final jigsaw piece in what will be one of the world’s great cycling routes. The new East West superhighway will be a treasured part of our new network, running through the heart of the capital and past the front door of some of our most loved landmarks such as the Houses of Parliament and Buckingham Palace.

“I am absolutely delighted that we and the Royal Parks have been able to reach agreement and I applaud the agency’s new chief executive, Andrew Scattergood, his staff and TfL for the immense work they have put in to make it happen.”

Public consultation on the Spur Road proposals will run until 4 October.

Subject to the outcome of the public consultation, the changes would be implemented at the same time as the rest of the superhighway opens, in summer 2016. They would be trialled for a year to assess their effectiveness.

Leon Daniels, Managing Director of Surface Transport at TfL, said: “Work on transforming London into a cycling city is now well and truly underway with engineers working day and night across the Capital to deliver these improvements.

“Once completed, the new East West Cycle Superhighway will become one of the world’s most iconic cycling routes with this proposed section in front of Buckingham Palace no doubt becoming a postcard icon of the future. We look forward to hearing people’s thoughts on these proposals and, if approved, will work to deliver them as quickly as possible.”

This was posted in Bdaily's Members' News section by Ellen Forster .