Work begins today (Mon, 24 June) on creating Liverpool city centre’s first dedicated bus hub – as part of a major drive to tackle congestion and cut air pollution.
The city bus hub, which is a key component of the city council’s £45m Liverpool City Centre Connectivity Scheme, is to provide a layover facility for buses running ahead of schedule.
Sited on Old Haymarket with a capacity of 12 bays, it is estimated the hub, along with proposed new bus routes, will help cut more than 900,000km of bus journeys out of the city centre and 2,000 tonnes of CO2 out of the atmosphere every year – as well as countless hours of congestion.
Liverpool City Council has instructed contractors GRAHAM to carry out the scheme which will see on street parking bays removed and is set to be completed by mid-December, in time for the introduction of the proposed new bus routes in January 2020 and the forthcoming changes to Lime Street and Queen Square bus station.
GRAHAM have already begun phase one of the LCCC scheme on nearby Victoria St and Moorfields. These package of of works include the removal of bus layovers and widening of pavements, as well as tree planting and new public realm features. Expected to complete in November phase one of LCCC will complement the new Victoria Street Car Park and the refurbishment of the Metquarter retail and leisure hub.
The ultimate aim of the LCCC scheme, which is major element in the council’s wider £500m Better Roads programme, is to re-engineer all major routes from the city’s commercial business district through to the city’s retail and knowledge districts.
The LCCC scheme is being supported by a £38.4m grant from the Local Growth Fund with city council match funding of £8.7m. 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.
Councillor James Noakes, Cabinet Member for Highways & Environment, said: “The new Bus Hub is a vital piece of the jigsaw in creating a cleaner and greener city centre – now and for future generations to enjoy.
“It’s function as a layover will remove thousands of unnecessary miles off our roads, reducing congestion in the city centre and cutting more than 2,000 tonnes of CO2 emissions every year.
“As well as helping to make traffic flow more efficiently – alongside the other changes in the city centre connectivity programme – the real long term benefit is the improvement to our overall air quality for the city and our efforts in tackling the climate crisis.
“Liverpool city centre has undergone a huge transformation over the past 20 years but our transport network has hardly changed. The bus hub is key to making the radical changes necessary to ensure how we travel around the city centre works for the next 20 years – to the benefit of us all and the environment.
“This is a complex piece of highways management and the demolition of the nearby Churchill Flyover will present some engineering challenges but a lot of preparation and planning has gone into this and once completed, the benefits to commuters, workers and visitors will be felt very quickly.”
