I received a flurry of emails from readers over the weekend all saying much the same thing - they're fencing off the bridge on the Greenway, your photo series is buggered. So I went along to check, and they were right.
The bridgetop itself is about 20 metres long and 10 metres wide, topped with tarmac, and a convenient way of covering over the enormous sewerpipe beneath. The bridge hasn't been completely sealed off - it's still perfectly possible to get from one side to the other. But the half nearest the stadium has been entirely fenced off, temporarily at least, so that the surface can be completely upgraded and made lovely before the Olympics begins. And this means my stadium viewpoint is in quarantine, and the arena stadium view is through a metal mesh, and my series of identically-sourced photographs is indeed stalled.
There's been very similar upgrade work underway on the Greenway south of Stratford High Street for the last couple of months. First one side of the carriageway gets ripped up and the vegetation trimmed back (with any key plantlife screened off so that contractors don't destroy it by mistake). Next a strip of extremely ugly tarmac is applied, which will allow pedestrian and cycle traffic to continue while the major upgrade is underway. Then the opposite half of the sewertop gets a rather lengthier makeover, laid out with arty cobbles and recycled brickwork for long-term legacy requirements. I went along to the public consultation which set out the Greenway plans, so I'm fairly confident the 2012 lot will do a good job, but for the time being it's a right ugly mess.
Much the same change now appears to be happening on the half-mile stretch alongside the Olympic stadium, but with a handful of key differences. Change is happening quicker, because this is a crucial section used by workers making their way to "Team Stadium". A towering green portakabin has been erected up at the railway end, presumably as somewhere to take official visitors when showing them the view. Three mysterious bus shelters have been added - one near the bridge, one near the Lea and one outside the workplace entrance inbetween. Those bus shelters have got me worried, because they suggest that somebody's planning to run a bus inbetween them, on a route that was once a quiet backwater cyclepath. We'll see.
And over by the edge of the Greenway bridge, alongside the official diamond geezer viewpoint, something new is being installed. I'm not quite sure what it is yet, because only the lowest level is semi-complete. So far there's a long wooden platform, along the entire length of the bridge, presumably because it's a more stable place to stand than the original narrow muddy ledge. But it's not yet clear if the structure's heading higher to become something more private, more security-conscious - to be some sort of 'official' viewing platform rather than just a random place to stand. If it's the former, at least TV crews will soon have somewhere better to film. If it's the latter, I'll be taking no more photos to add to my monthly collection.
Ah well, maybe two-years-worth is a good place to stop. Now that the Olympic Stadium's so far advanced, almost all of the major change has happened already. There won't be much more evolution to catalogue over the next three years, so why waste my time (and yours) with a series of nigh identical photographs? I'll see how long this Greenway evolution takes, and whether the end result is viewpoint or barrier, before making my decision.
Olympic update
Once a month, for the last couple of years, I've been up onto the Greenway bridge to take a photo of the Olympic site. The view's changed a heck of a lot over 24 photos, from a wasteland dotted with light industry to a structurally-complete world-class athletics stadium. I always go back to exactly the same spot (second span along, fourth post from the left, directly above the Marshgate Lane bridge). But my August 2009 photo isn't quite was I was hoping for, and I'm not convinced I'll ever be able to get precisely the same view again.
Much the same change now appears to be happening on the half-mile stretch alongside the Olympic stadium, but with a handful of key differences. Change is happening quicker, because this is a crucial section used by workers making their way to "Team Stadium". A towering green portakabin has been erected up at the railway end, presumably as somewhere to take official visitors when showing them the view. Three mysterious bus shelters have been added - one near the bridge, one near the Lea and one outside the workplace entrance inbetween. Those bus shelters have got me worried, because they suggest that somebody's planning to run a bus inbetween them, on a route that was once a quiet backwater cyclepath. We'll see.
