Improving pedestrian links between Swansea’s city centre and its waterfront by turning a major east-west traffic route into an attractive urban boulevard is part of a plan to transform Wales’ second city. A draft ‘strategic framework’ drawn up by consultant Roger Tym and Partners outlines the need to tackle the barrier Oystermouth Road presents to pedestrians. The priority given to vehicular traffic, the need to negotiate a subway, combined with ‘lack of enclosure, blank facades and car parking’ deter walking trips from the retail core to the fast-developing maritime quarter. It is recommended to keep Oystermouth Road as the main through-route for traffic with origins or destinations close to the city centre, while giving greater roadspace to pedestrians and cyclists. This would entail new ‘crossing squares’ consisting of widened, attractive central reservation areas and footways of 5m-plus. The proposal replaces the previous ambition for a tunnel to provide a direct pedestrian connection between the city centre and waterfront, discounted because of the £30M-plus pricetag. The consultant’s staff point out the ‘ironic’ fact that while banners on the High Street at the centre of the retail core announce the fact that Swansea is a seaside resort, there are no vistas or easy routes to the waterfront, where some 2,500 new homes and possible new attractions and hotels are planned. A ‘sailbridge’ would create a new pedestrian route over the River Tawe to the east, while the western end of Oystermouth would have a new ‘gateway plaza’ entrance to the maritime quarter as part of a mixed-use development at Paxton Street, next to the beach and promenade. A scheme under way to remove an underpass on the Kingsway route to the north of the city centre, as part of the introduction of the new ‘metro’ bus service, is also viewed as essential to the strategy to bring more jobs to the city centre. Anthony O’Sullivan, head of engineering and transportation, told residents earlier this month that the scheme was ‘progressing very well,’ with smooth traffic flows and shops trading as normal.