Funding for bus rapid transit Sheffield/Rotherham at Meadowhall

[eastwestdivide]

Funding has been confirmed for the link road under the M1 near Meadowhall as part of the Sheffield/Rotherham bus rapid transit scheme:
https://www.gov.uk/government/news/16-million-for-yorkshire-bus-services

Transport Minister Baroness Kramer has announced a £16 million package of measures for Yorkshire buses.
...
This £16 million of investment will help unlock the next planned phases of development in the Lower Don Valley, and create up to 4,400 new jobs.

The package includes:

a high quality Bus Rapid Transit (BRT) service connecting the centres of Rotherham and Sheffield with each other and with existing and proposed development sites in the Lower Don Valley
a new highway link under the M1 (the “Tinsley Link”) between Meadowhall Way and Sheffield Road
highway modifications to provide BRT priorities at congested sections of the route
revised junction layouts and intelligent traffic signal control to provide BRT priority at junctions
high quality low emission vehicles
purpose built bus stops with real-time passenger information and off-vehicle ticketing facilities

project scheduled to complete in September 2015.

I'll leave others to comment on the claimed 4,400 new jobs.

This was also previously covered in this thread:
http://railforums.co.uk/showthread.php?t=74155&highlight=meadowhall
but as it's closed, I couldn't add to it

 

[WatcherZero]

I think its refering to 4,400 jobs from the Don Valley Enterprise Zone development, not 4,400 created by the bus link

 

[tbtc]

I know I'm repeating myself from the other thread, but this is all about

a new highway link under the M1 (the “Tinsley Link”) between Meadowhall Way and Sheffield Road

(the buses are just a smokescreen to justify funding this new bit of road)

 

[Harpers Tate]

Exactly. And it runs almost parallel to the Tram-Train service for a substantial part of the route, so - as regards transport (as opposed to roads) - there is some stupid duplication of public funding. To say nothing of the effect each will have on the validity of the other.

It would have been a far more effective spend if the BRT had been so designed as to integrate with and supplement Tram-Train - to serve only an area that's away from the tracks and connecting into the tracks.

 

[eastwestdivide]

Quick update on this project:
1) Under the Tinsley M1 viaduct, there was a closure of the tram route in late Jan/Feb to allow for installation of a new level crossing for the link road.
2) Recently, there's been tree clearance work for the new bridge over the canal, right beside the existing rail bridge for the Rotherham-Magna-Tinsley/Woodburn Jn freight line. I was on the towpath at the weekend, and there are more trees marked up with painted crosses for felling, and some surveying sighting boards are in place on the east bank.
There's now a bit of a view of the rail bridge from the bottom lock of the Tinsley flight, but as the bridge has quite high sides, it doesn't actually look much good for train pictures. Might try if for completeness' sake before the bridge goes in, if I can get there for one of the few trains that use it.

Anyway, short version: work's starting on the biggest engineering task of the project, the bridge.

 

[eastwestdivide]

Over a year later, and another update: the bridge for the link road, crossing the Don Navigation (near to the bottom lock of the Tinsley flight) and the freight line between Rotherham and Woodburn Junction, has appeared in the last two weeks. Still plenty of fitting out to be done, and the road itself is nowhere near finished.
The towpath is still closed beneath the bridge, with a long detour

Here, before and after photos from 25 July 2015 and 15 Aug (today), with gratuitous Dewsbury-Hope cement empties passing, 66623 I think.