Tyne Cyclist and Pedestrian Tunnels
Tyne Cyclist and Pedestrian Tunnel was Britain's first purpose-built cycling tunnel. It runs under the River Tyne between Howdon and Jarrow, and was opened in 1951, heralded as a contribution to the Festival of Britain. The original cost was £833,000 and was used by 20,000 people a day. It actually consists of two tunnels running in parallel, one for pedestrian use with a 10 feet 6 inches (3.2 m) diameter, and a larger 12 feet (3.7 m) diameter tunnel for pedal cyclists. Both tunnels are 900 feet (270 m) in length, and lie 40 feet (12.2 m) below the river bed. The tunnels are nearly 60 years old and are Grade II listed buildings.
At each end, the tunnels are connected to surface buildings by two escalators and a lift. The Waygood-Otis escalators have 306 wooden steps each, and are the original models from 1951. At the time of construction, they were the highest single-rise escalators in the world, with a vertical rise of 85 feet (26 m) and a length of 200 feet (61 m). (In 1992 escalators with a higher vertical rise of 90 feet (27.4 m) and 197 feet (60 m) in length were constructed at Angel station on the London Underground.) The Tyne Tunnel escalators remain the longest wooden escalators in the world.
In a refitting phase the escalators and lift shafts were due to be upgraded by October 2010 to early 2011 at a cost of £500,000.
A £6,000,000 refurbishment is due to take place in 2011.
20,000 people a month use the pedestrian tunnel.
In 2005, The SoundEx filmed a music video to their song Street Freak in the tunnel. The band were able to close the cyclist tunnel off for two days and use it free of charge to bring the tunnel publicity.
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Famous quotes containing the word pedestrian:
“However global I strove to become in my thinking over the past twenty years, my sons kept me rooted to an utterly pedestrian view, intimately involved with the most inspiring and fractious passages in human development. However unconsciously by now, motherhood informs every thought I have, influencing everything I do. More than any other part of my life, being a mother taught me what it means to be human.”
—Mary Kay Blakely (20th century)