In a bid to help businesses and shoppers during the Christmas and New Year period, the authority is looking to minimise the number of roadworks to reduce the impact on deliveries and journeys

Liverpool City Council is suspending all non-urgent highways works over the festive season.

In a bid to help businesses and shoppers during the Christmas and New Year period, the authority is looking to minimise the number of roadworks to reduce the impact on deliveries and journeys.

The announcement follows the recent introduction of a new utilities scheme which requires water, gas, electricity and telecommunications firms, as well as building contractors, wanting to excavate roads and pavements to secure a permit before starting work.

Limited powers

Last year, there were 11,800 roadworks scheduled by utilities across the city, but contractors were only required to inform the council of the work that they were carrying out, giving the local authority limited powers to control activity.

The permit scheme and Christmas suspension is part of a wider strategy to ensure work is better co-ordinated, planned and managed, reducing disruption and delays for drivers and other road users, as the city council undertakes a £500m investment drive to improve Liverpool’s highways infrastructure under its Better Roads programme.

Many businesses in the retail, leisure and hospitality sectors generate up to a third of their annual profits during the festive season and the council is keen to minimise any disruption to that trade.

Essential works

For this year’s Christmas period only four essential schemes to the city’s network will remain on site. They are:

• Parliament Street / junction of Grafton and Jamaica Street: New pedestrian crossing from Cains Brewery as part of Parliament Street upgrade, to support development of Baltic Triangle. £2.5m programme includes new dropped kerbs, signal improvements and road resurfacing. Lane restrictions and temporary traffic lights until Friday, 14 December. Works will restart here in the New Year.
• Horrocks Avenue (B5171): £4m of highway improvement works have resulted in five-way temporary signals and night-time (8pm-6am) road closures. The will be in effect until Sunday, 16 December.
• Walton Hall Avenue (A580): £3.5m of highway improvement works between Queens Drive and Stopgate Lane includes lane restrictions and temporary signals in run up to East Lancs Road. This ends in early 2019.
• Waterloo Road and Regent Road / Great Howard Street (A565): For installation of underground utility and drainage works for the £7.6m waterfront link road to the new Isle of Man ferry terminal. Works include road widening, junction re-engineering and resurfacing as part of £32m package of works on North Liverpool corridor. Regent Road is scheduled to re-open on Thursday, December 13. Overall scheme is to end in autumn 2019.

Smooth running

The Churchill Way Flyovers, which connect Lime Street to Dale Street in the city centre, will remain closed whilst the city council awaits an initial report on a series of engineering surveys into the safety of the structure.

Cllr James Noakes, Liverpool City Council’s Cabinet Member for Highways, said: “Christmas is the busiest time for most businesses, their employees and customers and every year we try to minimise disruption on our highways to ensure the smooth running of deliveries and journeys at this critical period.”