Eric Wright Civil Engineering has started work to develop a new cycleway along the Solway Coast in Allerdale.

The 'Solway Coaster' project will see a 14.1km route between Allonby and Silloth created and join onto the already successful cycleway from Maryport to Allonby. The link between the coastal towns will form part of the National Cycle Network Route 72 (Hadrian's Cycleway), which runs from Ravenglass, Cumbria, to South Shields in Tyne and Wear.

The track is expected to be completed by the end of the current financial year.

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Allerdale Borough Council has taken the lead on delivering the project on behalf of the Silloth-on-Solway Coastal Community Team (CCT), a mix of public, private and community partners. The project has been supported by professional services firm WYG who are acting as contract managers for the Council, assisting with design, ecological surveys, planning applications and common land applications.

To fund the project the CCT secured £1m from the Department for Communities and Local Government's Coastal Communities Fund and a further £250,000 from DEFRA’s Rural Development Programme for England (RDPE), which is part of the European Agricultural Fund for Rural Development.

The path is aimed predominantly at cyclists, but the off-road sections will be multi-functional and accommodate pedestrians and cyclists. A total of 4.63km of the new route will be ‘off road’ and 9.47km 'on road'. The 'on road' sections of the route will utilise the existing carriageway and will include appropriate signage, markings and line painting.