Contractor Osborne will begin installing new underground utility trenches from Tuesday, September 18. To allow for the works to be carried out the inbound lane, heading south to the city centre
Drivers using one of the main routes into Liverpool city centre – Great Howard Street – will face disruption over the next four weeks as the next phase of a £22m upgrade gets under way.
Contractor Osborne will begin installing new underground utility trenches from Tuesday, September 18. To allow for the works to be carried out the inbound lane, heading south to the city centre, will be closed for four weeks from the junction of Blackstone Street. The outbound lane will also be reduced to a single lane.
Motorists travelling in to Liverpool from Bootle will be guided by a series of road diversions – at Millers Bridge, Bankhall Street, Sandhills Lane and Boundary Street – with drivers guided to use the Stanley Road, Commercial Road and Vauxhall Road corridor into the city centre.
The utility works are timetabled to run until Friday, October 19, but will be suspended from Thursday-Sunday, October 4-7, as the city hosts The Giants – a spectacular street theatre performance.
The upgrade of Great Howard Street, which will see it become a full dual carriageway in autumn 2019, is part of a wider £100m investment in the roads infrastructure along the north Liverpool docks including the relaying of Regent Road.
This is as well as the forthcoming the creation of two new waterfront link roads to support the city council’s new Cruise Terminal and the new Isle of Man Ferry terminal.
Earlier phases on the Great Howard Street scheme included a new bridge, completed last September, which was designed to support freight traffic for the Liverpool Superport and a new wall to improve access to the historic Stanley Flight canal lock system, which sits within Liverpool’s World Heritage site.
Councillor James Noakes, Cabinet member for Highways, said: “Great Howard Street is a critical arterial road for Liverpool connecting Bootle and Sefton to the city centre and its upgrade is vital to the development of the North Liverpool economy – not least the Ten Streets creativity district and the new cruise facilities.
“These utility works are a critical phase of the scheme and unfortunately the only way for our contractors to carry it out is to close off the city centre bound lanes over the next month.
To assist residents, commuters and business to track current an online map was launched which highlights current and planned road repairs and can be found by clicking here.