Liverpool picks Graham for first phase of £47m roads overhaul

Contractor Graham will start on a major overhaul of roads in the centre of Liverpool in January this year, including the addition of a bus hub at Old Haymarket and improved routes into the Knowledge Quarter.

Graham’s deal is for the first package of Liverpool City Council’s City Centre Connectivity project, which focusses on re-engineering routes in and out of the city’s commercial and retail districts.

Works will begin in January next year with the widening of pavements, removal of bus layovers, and public realm improvements along Victoria Street, running between North John Street to the Queensway Tunnel. This will complete in October.

Other elements of this first package of works include a new city centre bus hub on Old Haymarket, which will go before the city council’s planning committee on Tuesday 8 January.

Improved connections to the Knowledge Quarter Gateway are also set to get under way with works to Brownlow Hill, starting in April and completing in September next year.

Also starting in April, Graham will carry out improvements to Tithebarn Street and Moorfields, with work continuing until November. There will also be works to expand the existing coach parking facility at Riverside Drive to accommodate 30 additional vehicles; this will start in July and complete in November.

Cllr James Noakes, the council’s cabinet member for highways, said: “The phenomenal growth of Liverpool city centre over the past two decades has created many new challenges and new opportunities.

‘’With a growing residential population, a huge rise in visitors and major developments now taking shape, how we navigate around the city centre needs a radical rethink in key locations and some major improvements.

‘’This new connectivity scheme addresses many of our current and future needs to improve the city centre welcome and provide an experience befitting a world class city.

”The beginning of phase one at Victoria Street signals a new chapter for how we use our city centre, which when fully completed will open up some exciting opportunities in our public realm and will redefine how everyone from residents, workers, shoppers, students and tourists can enjoy exploring and discovering this amazing city.’’

Future phases of the LCCC will see a remodelling of Lime Street featuring a new events space, as well as the introduction of new bridges from Albert Dock to Canning Dock. These packages will complete by March 2020.

The project is being back by £38.4m from the Liverpool City Region’s Single Investment Fund with council match funding of £8.7m.