A section of a new town centre cycleway will have to removed and resurfaced over quality issues.
The cycleway runs from Newport Street to Bradford Street, where works to make the junction more cyclist and pedestrian friendly have recently been completed.
The project was part of a £2.15 million scheme to connect the ‘Cyclops’ (Cycle Optimised Protected Signals) junction improvements at Bradford Street/St Peters Way and Newport Street/Trinity Street.
It was funded by the Greater Manchester Local Growth Deal and delivered by Bolton Council and Transport for Greater Manchester as part of the Salford Bolton Network Improvement Programme.
A spokesperson for Bolton Council said: “There’s a short section of the cycle way which requires removal and resurfacing.
“The material required is difficult to obtain at present, but we expect the work to be carried out in the next couple of months.”
Voluntary secretary of Bolton Active Travel Forum and Bolton cyclist, Dr Grahame Cooper, raised concerns about the quality of the works.
He said: “When I made the complaint about the cycleway at Bridgeman Place, I was told by the council that it was a defect and that the contractors were required to come out.
“They used a machine to lay tarmac for the road, but then used hand laid tarmac for the cycleway.
“It is quite possible to get machines that go the same width as cycleways, but they’re never given priority.”
He continued: “The active travel facilities on Newport Street, Trinity Street, Bridgeman Place, Lower Bridgeman Street and Bradford Street, whilst far from perfect compared to the National Cycle Infrastructure Design Guidance, are a massive improvement on anything that exists anywhere else in Bolton borough.
“The footways and crossings are designed to a high quality, and this route now has the only kerb-protected dedicated cycleways in the Borough.
“It is unfortunate that a relatively good infrastructure project like this has been marred by such a poor surface quality.
“The junctions are more complex than they need to be, with too many long waits for people walking and cycling, cycle lanes are too narrow, and there are some serious safety concerns about some of the features.”
Read more: Campaigner's frustration after barrier put in cycle lane on busy Bolton junction
Dr Cooper continued: “But I think it can be politically hard for councils to commit fully to the road space reallocation that the Department for Transport requires of them.
“The places where such developments have been very successful have tended to have council leaders with the courage to make the changes that are necessary if we are to meet the challenges of climate change, poor air quality, road congestion, road danger, inactivity related health problems and associated costs, noise, and broken communities.
“What is needed now is for the council to increase rapidly the rate of development of such infrastructure.”
He added: “The whole route from Bradford Street up to Great Moor Street is half a mile long, people aren’t going to cycle that, that’s walking distance.
“People aren’t going to use it and there will be political backlash, as it will seem like at this no one is using it.
“Of course they’re not using it, it doesn’t go anywhere.”
He said: “We are now five years into the 10-year Greater Manchester Made to Move strategy, yet we have only half a mile of protected cycleways, which is not going to enable many people to switch to cycling, and we still have too many busy junctions with no pedestrian crossing facilities at all.
“One mile per decade is just too slow."
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