COUNTRYSIDE walkers and portworkers could benefit from a £340,000 footbridge and cycleway over the A14 at Felixstowe.Engineers will begin work tomorrow to investigate ground conditions for the bridge that initially will lead nowhere.

COUNTRYSIDE walkers and portworkers could benefit from a £340,000 footbridge and cycleway over the A14 at Felixstowe.

Engineers will begin work tomorrow to investigate ground conditions for the bridge that initially will lead nowhere.

Designers – who have been working up the scheme ready to show the public at an exhibition in May – want to build it from Rendlesham Road, Orwell Green, Felixstowe, over the Port of Felixstowe Road to the fields of Clickett Hill.

It would at first be used by a handful of dog walkers wanting access to country paths at Trimley and who currently run the gauntlet of juggernauts and cars on the four-lane A14 with their pets.

But landowners Trinity College, Cambridge, are working with the Highways Agencies and others to ensure in future the bridge will link in with other paths and roads so it can be used by workers to get to and from the port.

This will be possible once the Clickett Hill plateaux starts to be developed.

The Highways Agency said the proposed footbridge would provide an important link for residents to safely cross the A14.

Work on the surveying and ground investigations will cost £25,000 and will involve drilling boreholes on land between the A14 and properties in Rendlesham Road and Mickfields Mews.

Work will take one week and be done between 8am and 5pm. On some days the work will close one lane on both carriageways between 9.30am and 3.30pm.

A survey of 900 residents and businesses revealed large-scale support for a footbridge across the A14. Of 613 responses, 76 per cent thought improved crossing facilities would benefit the local community.

Some 70pc of the people surveyed thought the existing facilities were inadequate and 95pc of those in support suggested a footbridge as an improvement measure.

Brian Pitkin, Highways Agency project manager, said "This investigation work will find out if it is possible to build a bridge in this location and the type of foundations needed.

"The footbridge would provide a safer crossing of the A14 for pedestrians and cyclists where there already is an existing crossing point next to Rendlesham Road.

"The bridge would also provide an important link for residents to access business and leisure facilities to the west of the A14."

The public exhibition in May will allow the public and interested organisations to comment on the proposals and ask further questions. Further details will be made available nearer the time.

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