More than £40,000 has been raised by public donations through the crowdfunding website Spacehive to begin a feasibility study on whether the Churchill flyover in Liverpool could become a promenade in the sky, complete with arts spaces, landscaped gardens and coffee shops. The project has been compared with New York’s High Line – a hugely popular one-mile linear park built along a disused railway, which has revitalised an area of Manhattan’s West Side.

The Independent had the story (as did the Liverpool Echo)- Page: 20-21 – 3rd May

www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/crowdfunding-gets-liverpools-elevated-park-off-the-ground-9318140.html

This is a fascinating idea but the Churchill flyover is a different kind of elevated structure to the one in New York. For a start it is shorter and constructed of concrete as opposed to steel. It is also not level but inclined. It will be interesting to see if/how this flyover can be re-purposed but some radical thinking will be required. It will also need a significant capital investment to undertake the works and of course to pay for the year on year maintenance. If it can be brought off (most likely without any money from the Council or Government) it will be a significant achievement as the New York project has been a huge success, However, as I say, the circumstances in Liverpool are not altogether the same.

www.thehighline.org/

www.en.wikipedia.org/wiki/High_Line_%28New_York_City%29