A two-week closure of part of Liverpool’s historic “Dock Road” will end this Sunday evening (20 January) as key works complete.
Cadent, which manages the North West’s gas network, have undertaken essential repairs to the metallic main under Waterloo Road – one of the oldest working gas mains in Liverpool dating back to 1850 – near to its junction with Paisley Street.
And as part of a multi-million upgrade to Waterloo and Regent Road, council contractors Osborne will finish the latest stretch of a new pedestrian and cycle route to the junction with Sandhill’s Lane.
The following day, after Monday’s morning peak hour, the city centre bound lanes on the adjacent Derby Road (A565) will close to traffic for 1 week, from the junction of Miller’s Bridge in Bootle to Bank Hall.
There will also be 4-way temporary signals in operation as the new junction is finalised.
This closure marks the latest phase in the creation of a new £22m dual carriageway for the A565, which will complete in Autumn 2019.
Motorists travelling in to Liverpool from Bootle will be guided by a series of road diversions – with drivers guided to use the Stanley Road, Commercial Road and Vauxhall Road corridors into the city centre.
The north Liverpool corridor scheme has been funded by the Local Growth Fund (LGF). Local Growth Funding is awarded to the Liverpool City Region Local Enterprise Partnership (LEP) and invested through the Liverpool City Region Combined Authority through its Strategic Investment Fund.
This overall investment package of road improvements in the north Liverpool area is worth more than £100m and is a key element of Liverpool City Council’s £500m Better Roads programme to invest in the city’s highways network.
The works are also seen as crucial to the development of surrounding major regeneration schemes such as the Ten Streets creativity district and Everton FC’s proposed new stadium at Bramley Moore Dock in Liverpool Waters.
Earlier phases on the A565 scheme included a new bridge, 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: “The North Liverpool corridor is a hugely complex highways scheme involving an immense amount of engineering works on two major roads at the same time.
“To ensure traffic flows this scheme can only be carried out by a phased approach which means some weeks there are full road closures and some weeks just lane closures.
“We really appreciate the patience of motorists as these essential works are carried out and fortunately there are other alternative routes. Of course, schemes of this nature cause disruption but the long term gains of this investment in north Liverpool’s infrastructure are going to help redefine our city’s economic future.”
