Water Lane - new pedestrian and cyclist crossing

Newham Council is committed to creating more people-friendly streets to make it easier and safer for everyone in Newham to get around using greener modes of transport. As part of this commitment, construction works on a new pedestrian and cyclist crossing on Water Lane, between Louise Road and Manbey Grove, is being built. Once completed, the crossing will connect to the popular strategic east-west walking and cycling route which runs through the area. This will support a significant number of cyclists and pedestrians using the route which runs from Stratford to Woodgrange. 

Manbey Gove will be converted from one-way to two-way vehicle movements in order accommodate vehicles turning around once they reach Water Lane.

Construction started on Monday 9 February 2026 and is expected to last approximately 12 weeks.

The idea of a crossing at Water Lane was raised during the community engagement stages of the proposed the Manbey and Atherton people-friendly streets schemes. Once these schemes were made permanent, Newham Council delivered a leaflet to residents in November 2023 seeking feedback on a proposed crossing on Water Lane. We received 78 survey responses and 58 people engaged with the project as part of two dedicated events. Residents were overwhelmingly supportive of the proposed scheme.

The updated design for the crossing, which is based on residents’ feedback and traffic surveys, includes the following changes from the original design:

• The cycle crossing was moved from north to south to align with carriageways and reduce conflict with pedestrian movements
• An additional zebra crossing closer to Maryland Station was added to facilitate safter crossing at Keogh Road, based on pedestrian studies
• Increased planting and greenery on Louise Road and Manbey Grove

 There will be temporary parking suspensions to facilitate construction, with signage on-site in the lead-up to construction.

The construction contractor is Kenson Highways. If you have any queries, you can contact them – WaterLane@KensonHighways.com