Missing Link roadworks force bike park to close

The FlyUp 417 bike park in lies directly in the path of the Missing Link project

A bike park has been forced to close for six weeks to make way for roadworks.

The FlyUp 417 bike park in Witcombe, Gloucestershire, lies directly in the path of the £460m A417 Missing Link road project.

A new dual carriageway will be built to replace an accident hotspot, close to the Air Balloon roundabout.

National Highways, which is leading the project, has been in negotiations with the FlyUp owners over the work.

Angela and Simon Ruskin live on the site and run the bike park, with the help of a small team.

They knew where the work was going to take place, and agreed with National Highways to move tracks to allow for construction.

Simon and Angela Ruskin run FlyUp 417 bike park

Ms Ruskin said the team was given a deadline of September to make the amendments to the park - but work was brought forward to this month.

Heavy machinery has now been brought in to move more than a million cubic metres (approx 470,000 tonnes) of rock being excavated from the site.

“[National Highways] made it very clear to us that they are starting work this week, whether we’re ready or not.

"The only solution we could see would be to close temporarily for six weeks and that would then allow them to come in and do their work, allow us to move our tracks, and then everybody can still work alongside each other," Ms Ruskin said.

She added that the staff had all found it "incredibly hard", but acknowledged the "amazing" response and support from customers.

"Ultimately we're just trying to run a business and get people out on bikes."

The road scheme is designed to improve a traffic bottleneck and accident blackspot on the A417

Steve Foxley, National Highways' project director for the A417 Missing Link project said: "We appreciate that any works, particularly on such a major project, can cause disruption for nearby businesses, and we do all we can through negotiation with affected parties to minimise that disturbance as much as possible.

"We work really closely with FlyUp to address their concerns where possible and reach a compromise to minimise any impacts from the approved scheme on their business."

The team at FlyUp said it hoped to reopen the park on 17 July.