It seems like a very long time but this project really took less than three years. This is quite fast for a highway project! On the other hand since the Icknield Way has been there a number of millennia perhaps it wasn’t so fast after all. Perhaps people used to complain then of the danger in crossing it because of the all the migrating mammoths?
The most difficult bit was putting together a financial package to pay for it. Some money came from developer contributions, some from the “Safer Routes to School” budget and the rest from the Highway Locality Budget that is allocated to each county councillor.
It is an important element at the start of Footpath 41 which is to be upgraded to shared cycle and pedestrian use from Longbridge Cose to the town centre. This features as Scheme 22 in the Tring, Northchurch and Berkhamsted Urban Transport Plan put together by the County Council in 2013 and in which Tring Town Council was involved in some of the later stages.
I hope the crossing will be completed before the end of the month.
In the not too distant future development money will be channelled through Dacorum Borough Council (the Planning Authority) to Herts County Council (the Highways Authority) for improvements such as Scheme 22. I have already had a preliminary meeting with DBC officers to discuss the availability of funding for some of these county council schemes.
A future development arising from Scheme 22 might be a second crossing over Silk Mill Way, which Footpath 41 has to cross – funding permitting. We shall see.