Call for a footpath under railway bridge is rejected

There is an existing footpath on one side of the road however many pedestrians continue to walk under the bridge on the side without a footpath.

At a recent meeting of Lisburn City Council’s Planning Committee, Councillor Alan Carlisle expressed concern about schoolchildren in particular walking under the bridge and asked Roads Service to consider installing a new footway on one of the busiest roads into the city centre.

However, responding to Councillor Carlisle’s request, Roads Service said there were no plans to install a footway at this time as both the cost and the disruption caused would not make it viable at this time.

Deputy Divisional Roads Manager, Roy Spiers, said: “There is an existing footway on the west side of the carriageway under the bridge with a crossing point to the north side and signage providing information that the footway ends on the east side before the bridge

“Providing a footway on the east side under the bridge would require replacement of the existing railway bridge in order to provide sufficient width to accommodate an additional footway.

“This would be a high cost scheme which would also cause very significant disruption to both road and rail users.”

Mr Spiers continued: “Consideration of the above factors and the absence of any relevant personal injury collisions or traffic progression problems on Antrim Street mean that this scheme would still not compare favourably against other potential minor works schemes.

“Consequently there are no plans to provide a new footway at this time,” he concluded.