TfGM steps up tram roadwork
The passenger transport body has welcomed in the New Year with an increase in utility diversion work to make way for the Metrolink second city crossing.
Download road closure map here
Transport for Greater Manchester has written to occupiers along the new tram route with a schedule of road closures. The list covers parts of King Street, Cross Street, Brown Street, Oxford Road, Essex Street, Cooper Street, Marsden Street, Booth Street and Princess Street. The shortest closure is for one week from Monday 19 January on George Street at the junction of Oxford Road. The longest closure is for 12 weeks at King Street between Cross Street and Cheapside from Monday 5 January.
TfGM said works were "reduced [last month] to accommodate the increased numbers of people in the city centre over the Christmas period. As a result, these works will now be carried out along the 2CC route and adjacent streets in January 2015."
The second city crossing is due to begin operating in 2017; beginning in Lower Mosley Street and running through St Peter's Square, turning down Princess Street and heading along Cross Street and Corporation Street before re-joining the existing Metrolink line at the expanded Victoria Metrolink stop.
And what a welcome back to work, 30 minutes late due to the road closures – well done TfGM !
By MancLass
Please can the utility companies that will be executing these works be made to adhere to the same standards of operational health and safety that contractors in the building sector adhere to. It seems like the HSE has a real blindspot towards these utility companies who, amongst other things, regularly work in unsupported trenches, have appalling attitudes to public nuisance (noise, dust, vibration) and have a cavalier attitude to their duty-of-care under the Occupier’s Liability Act 1984. Come on, HSE, start the new year with a bang and not the usual puffed up fanfare; look beyond your noses and start getting to grips with the menace of the utility companies who are dancing a merry tune around their health and safety obligations that the rest of us get battered from pillar-to-post for.
By Grit
The HSE don’t know where real danger lies; they just keep parroting the same old gazoo along the same tired lines and not really doing anything useful for anyone apart from the odd fine here and there when they manage to get a dodgy roofer or scaffolder nailed by the Queen’s Bench.
By Zollywood
I dont understand why Clarence Street is closed, it was dug up prior to Christmas so what have they missed? Can they not do some of this work through the night so that disruption to traffic is minimalised
By MancLass