City of Wolverhampton Council has successfully bid for £110,000 of funding to create the toucan crossing over Ring Road St Peters.
It will provide an additional option to the Molineux Subway which is currently the most direct route for people wanting to get from the city centre to the football stadium or the neighbouring university buildings.
The new crossing will run from where Paternoster Row meets the Ring Road, across the central reservation and over to the Molineux Hotel City Archives building.
Funding for the project has come from the Government’s Emergency Active Travel Fund and a condition of the grant is that the works are completed quickly. Construction is due to start next month and be completed by September.
Councillor Steve Evans, City of Wolverhampton Council’s cabinet member for city environment, said: “Creating an additional option to the subway has long been an aspiration of the city council, university and football club.
“The subway is iconic, especially to Wolves fans, we have recently invested in improvements to it and installed artwork and it will of course remain for those who wish to use it, but not everyone feels safe down there, especially at night.
“The route is obviously hugely busy on match days, but it is also used by many workers, students and shoppers on a daily basis.
“We are thrilled to have successfully bid for more funding from the Emergency Active Travel Fund scheme. The Government have created this funding for schemes which make it easier and safer for people to walk and cycle during the pandemic and we think that this new crossing will do that.
“I want to pay tribute to council transport officers who put together this bid and developed a deliverable scheme which satisfied the Government’s funding criteria.”
The council will also be putting forward bids for future funding to create a cycleway which would run through the Ring Road central reservation between Stafford Street and Chapel Ash to create a safe route for cyclists.
