MOTORISTS are being advised that a road closure will come into effect from next week on Woodgate as work on the major A50/Fiveways improvement scheme continues.
With remodelling and improvements to the main Fiveways junction now largely complete, work will focus on Woodgate, moving towards Frog Island, over the coming weeks.
As part of ongoing improvements to Woodgate, the road will need to be closed to traffic in both directions, between its junctions with Marshall Street and Abbey Gate, from next Monday (30 Oct). The temporary closure will be in place between 7.30am and 3.30pm for up to ten days while carriageway resurfacing is carried out.
A well-signed diversion will be in place using Blackbird Road, Ravensbridge Drive, St Margaret’s Way, and Sanvey Gate. Side roads off Woodgate – Balfour Street, Marshall Street and Bassett Street – will all have their one-way restrictions suspended during the closure. Access to Aldi will be via the rear entrance off Bradgate Street.
Woodgate is due to reopen to all traffic by Thursday 11 November, while roadworks across the city are paused for the busy Christmas period. Work will recommence from Monday 10 January 2024.
Improvements to Woodgate, which include wider footpaths, a new cycle lane, a relocated pedestrian crossing, and a repositioned bus shelter, are almost complete.
It is part of the major redevelopment of the A50/Fiveways junction and its connecting roads, in northwest Leicester, to help make this important route safer and easier to use for all road users.
Work to reconfigure the busy main junction linking Blackbird Road, Woodgate, Fosse Road North, Groby Road and Buckminster Road is now complete.
Once improvements to Woodgate are finished early in the new year, a final phase of works will begin from Abbey Gate, over North Bridge and towards Frog Island and the Waterside development.
Martin Fletcher, Leicester City Council director of highways, said: “This is a major scheme that will make huge improvements to one of the most confusing junctions in Leicester. It will help simplify Fiveways for drivers and make it a much more attractive and safer route for all road users.
"It will make a huge difference for pedestrians, particularly residents, who will be able to cross the busy junction and get to the local shops safely. But the work will also improve the junction for cyclists, for the public transport network and, importantly, simplify the junction for motorists.
“We’re working hard to keep road closures to a minimum. We’re over the worst of the disruption now. With work to the main Fiveways junction recently completed, we are now working our way along Woodgate towards Frog Island. The ongoing works mean that we will still need to manage a rolling programme of short-term and partial road closures as we approach the final phases of the complex scheme.”
Work on the major improvement scheme is expected to be complete by late spring 2024.
The A50/Fiveways improvement scheme is being paid for through a mix of Enterprise Zone funding through the Leicester and Leicestershire Enterprise Partnership (LLEP), and the Transforming Cities Fund following the city council’s successful bid for £32million of second tranche funding to support improvements to public transport and provide more safer routes for walkers, wheelers and cyclists in the city centre and local neighbourhoods.
Work is being carried out by Thomas Bow City Asphalt – one of the biggest building and civil engineering contractors in the East Midlands – under contract to Leicester City Council.