Bristol's Temple Gate layout change planned in £21m revamp

[whole diary]

[Chris from Nailsea]

From the BBC^» (British Broadcasting Corporation - home page):

Bristol's Temple Gate layout change planned in ^21m revamp


A public square will be created at the entrance of Temple Meads railway station if the proposals are accepted

A main route into Bristol is set to undergo a major revamp under proposals put forward by Bristol City Council.

The Temple Circus roundabout close to Temple Meads station will be built over and replaced with a public square and a more direct route into the city.

A city council spokesman said the new square would "give life to the area day and night".

The council has said the plans are part of a wider ^21m development across the Temple Quarter Enterprise Zone.

Plans for the revamp involve:
- Creating a single wide crossing point to replace three road crossings between the station and Brunel Mile
- Clearer public transport signs and a new Metrobus stop
- New cycle routes to connect with cycle paths being built on Clarence Road, Cattlemarket Road and to the rest of the Bristol cycle network

An exhibition of the plans will be held at the Engine Shed from Tuesday, 13 January until Friday, 30 January.

The deadline for the public consultation is 18 February, 2015.


Temple Circus roundabout, which is very close to Temple Meads station will be replaced under the plans


The new road layout will see a road straight into Bristol city centre and new pedestrian crossings

[JayMac]

Much more information on the project, including details of public exhibitions and consultations, can be found at:

http://www.bristoltemplequarter.com/gate

[Red Squirrel]

Looks good!

I had fun filling in the survey - took the opportunity to highlight the similarities between the outgoing Temple Circus Gyratory (a failed, expensive, poorly-designed junction which was built despite a significant weight of informed opinion suggesting that a crossroads would have been better) with Metrobus (which the new plans seek to accommodate).

[TonyK]

The artist's impression is typical of Bristol projects - just missing a few palm trees, a unicycling unicorn, somebody in a bikini...

...and end-to-end nose-to-tail traffic.

[johnneyw]

Looks good!

I had fun filling in the survey - took the opportunity to highlight the similarities between the outgoing Temple Circus Gyratory (a failed, expensive, poorly-designed junction which was built despite a significant weight of informed opinion suggesting that a crossroads would have been better) with Metrobus (which the new plans seek to accommodate).

Went and filled in the survey too. Doubt if they will include an outdoor roller disco though!




Edit note: Quote marks fixed, for clarity. CfN.

[Surrey 455]

took the opportunity to highlight the similarities between the outgoing Temple Circus Gyratory (a failed, expensive, poorly-designed junction which was built despite a significant weight of informed opinion suggesting that a crossroads would have been better) with Metrobus

Is Metrobus...

• A bus company in Crawley that also runs some Tfl routes? www.metrobus.co.uk
• A type of bus popular in the 1980's? https://flic.kr/p/eb1q4j
• Other?

Note I deliberately chose a picture of a route that I used to be quite familiar with.

[TonyK]

Is Metrobus...

• A bus company in Crawley that also runs some Tfl routes? www.metrobus.co.uk
• A type of bus popular in the 1980's? https://flic.kr/p/eb1q4j
• Other?

The answer is:

• Other

MetroBust n. A white elephant project designed to compensate for the failure of local authorities to agree on a tram route. Initially promising "A tram-like experience in high quality vehicles on segregated routes", it is now offering a bus-like experience in a bus-like bus on a road-like road, all for a ruinous ^200 million-plus.

Notes to describe context: Its most ardent supporter is Bristol's Cabinet member for Transport Cllr Mark Bradshaw. He has heaped praise on it, describing it as "...a lame duck project with virtually zero public support". Other prominent champions of MetroBust include Mayor George Ferguson, who paid gushing tribute to the scheme, describing it as "Flawed - a project chasing funds rather than a project worthy of funding", before saying he would ask to use the money for rail-based transport projects instead.

(Definition is from the Bristol Dictionary of Parallel Logic)

[Red Squirrel]

For them as finds this kind of thing entertaining, here is a drone's-eye view of the future road layout outside Temple Meads: https://youtu.be/RXsDo_mYRfc

Apparently it's all been delayed because they discovered the wrong kind of cellar when they got their diggers out... see, it's not just 'the railway' that cocks this kind of thing up. It's almost like it would be quite a good idea for someone to record where all the services were buried - if only we had access to the kind of technology that would make that cheap and easy.

Council apologises for extended Temple Circus roadworks

Major works to improve the Temple Circus junction have been extended due to unforeseen problems on the site.

The scheme is now due to be completed in autumn 2019 following a series of unexpected discoveries under the road – unrecorded electricity cables and water pipes as well as uncharted cellars under the roundabout and Victoria Street – all requiring major change to the planned programme. The installation of heat networks, vital to meeting the city’s carbon reduction targets, have also added an extra layer of complexity to the project, making progress slower than expected.

Source: Bristol Temple Quarter

[TonyK]

Better safe than sorry with those cellars. A JCB suffering what physicists would describe as "a rapid decrease in potential energy" is something to be avoided.

Heat networks? I knew nothing of that.  Are we having combined heat and power on the site?

[WelshBluebird]

I wonder what the initial completion date was supposed to be for this? The fact it is going to take over a year from now to finish it seems a bit nuts considering how long the work seems to have been going on for.

[stuving]

Heat networks? I knew nothing of that.  Are we having combined heat and power on the site?

What? have you never heard of the City Council's Energy Service Bristol? Or The Energy Service (which is probably the same thing, though it's hard to tell that or much else from their web pages)?

[Bmblbzzz]

I can't speak for FTN, obviously, but it's certainly the first I've heard of it. CHP is generally a good thing (I think) but it's not clear from this https://www.energyservicebristol.co.uk/business/heat-networks/ that the heat network they speak of is actually CHP – it sounds more like district heating.

[Red Squirrel]

I can't speak for FTN, obviously, but it's certainly the first I've heard of it. CHP is generally a good thing (I think) but it's not clear from this https://www.energyservicebristol.co.uk/business/heat-networks/ that the heat network they speak of is actually CHP – it sounds more like district heating.

Maybe that's what Marv has up his sleeve - instead of the Arenal, we're getting a CHP power station fuelled by unicorn farts.

[SandTEngineer]

I can't speak for FTN, obviously, but it's certainly the first I've heard of it. CHP is generally a good thing (I think) but it's not clear from this https://www.energyservicebristol.co.uk/business/heat-networks/ that the heat network they speak of is actually CHP – it sounds more like district heating.

Maybe that's what Marv has up his sleeve - instead of the Arenal, we're getting a CHP power station fuelled by unicorn farts.

Please don't make posts like that when I'm drinking my cup of tea...….

[martyjon]

Hope this CHP (Combined Heat & Power) Network will be better maintained than New York's, when I was last there in a winter month walking along the sidewalks it was unpleasant keep having to walk through clouds of steam escaping from the network through sidewalk grills where the CHP was connected to a building.

Best to cut pollution in Bristol City Centre is introduce a congestion zone.

Years ago waiting for a bus home outside the Colston Tower, 3 DPD courier vans with each driver delivering just 1 parcel each was parked on either double yellow lines or in the "BUS STOP" area with two City Parking Wardens standing nearby, so close to me that I was able to shout to them, "Why don't you book them" as the bus arrived and couldn't get into the bus stop. Their reply. "They'd only appeal the ticket and have it cancelled".