Key Liverpool road to close for four weeks
Contractor Osborne is to begin work this week on installing underground utility trenches as part of the £22m Great Howard Street upgrade, meaning the lanes inbound to Liverpool city centre from its northern fringe will be closed for four weeks from Blackstone Street.
The outbound carriageway will be reduced to a single lane as part of the works. Motorists travelling into 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 from Tuesday 18 September until Friday 19 October, but will be suspended for four days from 4 October while the Giants event takes place.
The upgrade of Great Howard Street, which will see it become a full dual carriageway from autumn 2019, is part of a wider £100m investment in the roads infrastructure along the north Liverpool docks including the relaying of Regent Road, as well as the forthcoming the creation of two new waterfront link roads to support new termini for cruise ships and for the Isle of Man ferry.
Work already carried out includes 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 Stanley Flight canal lock system, which sits within Liverpool’s World Heritage site. The investment is designed to underpin investment in Ten Street, Liverpool Waters and Everton’s proposed Bramley Moore Dock stadium
Cllr 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. We know this will cause disruption to commuters but fortunately the area is serviced by other major roads and we have tried to ensure the impact is kept to a minimum.”
