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National World - LocalTV
  • 18/03/2025
While decision-makers at Gateshead Council are due to meet this week to formally agree to knock down the 1960s concrete structure, creative thinkers have been urged to come up with innovative alternatives that could retain and repurpose the flyover.

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00:00While decision-makers at Gateshead Council are due to meet this week to formally agree
00:05to knock down the 1960s concrete structure, creative thinkers have been urged to come
00:09up with innovative alternatives that could retain and repurpose the flyover.
00:14Newcastle University's Farrell Centre has opened a contest inviting suggestions for
00:18ambitious ways that the highway could be saved and turned into something new.
00:23The competition takes inspiration from projects like New York's famous High Line Park, which
00:28was created on a disused railway spur that was considered an eyesore.
00:32Farrell Centre director Owen Hopkins has said that he has already been thinking about how
00:36structures like the flyover and central motorway shapes people's experiences of being around
00:41Tyneside and can act as barriers, with the centre currently staging a Concrete Dreams
00:45exhibition exploring the transformation of the area through the 1960s and 70s.
00:51But the sudden closure of the flyover before Christmas has, he believes, made the idea
00:55of reimagining their use a far more tangible prospect.
00:59Mr Hopkins said,
01:00I think it may have been too much of a fantastical thought experiment for some people without
01:05the forced closure, so in a way it has presented a nice opportunity to think beyond demolition.
01:11Gateshead Council has held plans since 2008 to remove the flyover and replace it with
01:16a tree-lined boulevard, though such proposals have never been funded.
01:20The suggestion of retaining the structure is likely to cause concern among civic centre
01:24officials due to the cost of its ongoing maintenance, but the report last week haven't
01:29deemed it inherently unsafe.
01:31But Mr Hopkins believes that other options could be considered.
01:35Some of my colleagues at the university are doing an analysis of the effect of the closure
01:39so far on traffic and they are saying the impact is rather less than had been suggested.
01:44Given the funding situation, we are putting forward a platform for some alternatives.
01:49He added,
01:50Our ambition is to spark the public's imagination and to see what might be possible.
01:54So what do some of you guys think should be done with the flyover that's sparked a lot
01:57of controversy over the last few months?
01:59Personally, I think it's always been a bit of an eyesore anyway, so why would you preserve
02:06something that's not aesthetically pleasing?
02:11I mean if they want to do something with it instead of demolishing it and it's like environmental
02:15based, then amaze and do that, but apart from that, we've got no thoughts.
02:20I didn't realise demolition was even something they were considering.
02:23It's quite a big part of Newcastle to sort of take out, it's just the fact that it brings
02:28so much traffic in and out for that to go.
02:30I don't know enough about that, I don't really understand the reasons why it's on its way
02:35to collapse, but I think if it's going to collapse, take it down, start afresh.
02:41But in terms of like, I don't know what you could use with it, it's like, it is just there.
02:48Demolition might have to just be it, but it's just going to cause more aggravation.
02:53You couldn't make it, well you could potentially make it a green space, but access to it is
02:57pretty difficult.

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