Tuesday 9 July 2013

Locating bridges

I haven't been able to get out mapping much recently, but a lovely day tempted me out. I did some OS Locator name chasing and as is often the case, the OS Locator names led me to a development with far more changes than just the ones OS Locator picks up. I will need to return again as the development grows in Kingswood. There's lots of area obviously earmarked for development but presumably waiting for the cash generated from selling the current houses to fund the next stage.

I then went to look at a newly opened crossing of the river Hull, Scale Lane bridge. It is a pedestrian and cycle route across the river very close to the museum quarter. It lead directly to a large fairly new hotel and towards The Deep, Hull's aquarium, or Submarium as they call it. If you are in the city take a look at The Deep, it is interesting. You walk slowly down to see lower and lower levels in the aquarium and then a glass lift carries you from the bottom back to the top to looking out at the large aquarium as you go.

Scale Lane Bridge, the black part swings
The new bridge is interesting too. If it opens for river traffic, gates shut at the east end and this end swings around to open for boats, but anyone on the bridge can stay on and people can still get on and off the bridge at the west end. In the middle of the bridge is a building which will be a café eventually and a small exhibition space too I think. These is a sloped cycleway and a flatter footway, except the footway has steps along it. All along the footway there are seats with views looking across the river. It didn't swing open while I was there, but it still looks quite different for a bridge and I like it.
The Arctic Corsair trawler, now a museum, beside the river Hull walkway


The main road crossing of the river Hull and beyond the tidal barrier

I then took a look at a new development close to home. The Bridgehead development is close to the north end of the Humber bridge. It looks like it will be the usual for commercial buildings: steel structured, clad with glass and shuttering. The first two buildings are under way with room for a few more. The roads are accessible so I grabbed a trace. It is interesting that cycle lanes are being included in the road layouts, since the entrance is off the A15 dual carriageway where there are no cycle lanes. Maybe a new cycleway will join up from the development to the existing cycle lanes nearer the bridge and beyond.

Wednesday 3 July 2013

OS Locator chasing

I finally got around to sorting out some new OS Locator anomalies close to home. I went to look at a new small road under the shadow of the Humber bridge. When I got there the road was dug up for pipe laying. The tarmac has been down less than 3 months and already the utilities are digging it up again. As I was standing looking down the road, wondering if I should brave the excavators, a woman in a hard hat and fluorescent jacket approached me smiling. She asked if I was interested in the new houses, which are not finished. When I explained I was making a map the smile faded but she agreed I could walk to the end of the road with my GPS 'at my own risk'. Since everything I do tends to be at my own risk I collected my trace. On the way out I asked the once more smiling woman what the road name is going to be and she confirmed the same name that OS Locator has.

Next I went to Welton. Here a slightly bigger development has been squeezed into what was a farmyard many years ago. Here too the road was uneven, but only because the final surface has not been laid. None of the houses looked finished, indeed some were barely started. Here too I was approached by a florescent jacket, this time draped around a young man with a clipboard. He too wanted to sell me a house, but when he heard that I was making a map he asked me to leave as it was still a building site and not safe for the public. As I already had my trace I left, this time snapping a picture of the new road's name board - about the only part of the development that was complete.

I am used to roads showing up in OS Locator as they are close to complete, so seeing ones so obviously early in their development is a little different. Maybe OS are trying to get ahead of the game.