Twelve months on, abandoned eyesore flyover is still standing

AN ABANDONED and crumbling eyesore running through the heart of Tyneside, the Gateshead Flyover has now stood empty for a full year.

- DANIEL HOLLAND

Today marks exactly 12 months since the A167 Gateshead Highway flyover was suddenly shut down after major safety fears over its concrete pillars emerged.

The emergency closure of one of the region's busiest roads sparked a travel crisis, the height of which came last Christmas when all Tyne and Wear Metro services between Gateshead and Newcastle had to be shut down for almost two weeks while engineers hurriedly worked to shore up the 1960s-built structure to prevent it collapsing.

And it has become a source of immense frustration for local businesses, particularly those on the adjacent Gateshead High Street, who have been left fearing that a downturn in trade and reputational damage to the town will leave them struggling to survive.

While it remains deserted and decaying, the flyover still stands - a concrete monument to decline that continues to await its promised demolition.

The removal of the flyover itself is now expected to start in the new year, after the neighbouring Computer House is torn down, with council leader Martin Gannon saying the structure should be mostly demolished by May.

He had previously pledged last March that the flyover would be gone "within a year" and hopes that the demolition would begin in the autumn came and went.