MOTORISTS are being advised that traffic restrictions will be in place on a busy Leicester route as work on a major road improvement scheme continues.
Leicester City Council is carrying out highway improvements to the A50 Frog Island and Northgate Street to make the route safer and more attractive to walkers, wheelers and cyclists, as well as improving facilities for bus users.
To enable work to be carried out safely, the road will be closed to traffic in its inbound direction, between Abbey Gate and Sanvey Gate, from Monday 8 January.
A short, well-signed diversion will be in place along Blackbird Road, Ravensbridge Drive and onto St Margaret’s Way for the duration of the works, which are expected to last up to 12 weeks.
Inbound bus services will also be diverted from Woodgate onto Abbey Gate and Ravensbridge Drive, before joining St Margaret’s Way into the city centre.
The scheme is a continuation of works recently carried out along Woodgate. Improvements will now continue along Frog Island and Northgate Street, towards the new Waterside housing development. This will create a safer and more attractive route through the neighbourhood with wider footpaths, a new off-road cycle lane, raised tables at junctions with key side streets, and an improved pedestrian crossing close to Salter Street Primary School
The main carriageway will also be resurfaced. This work is due to be carried out in late-March and will require a full road closure. Full details will be publicised nearer the time.
The works will be the final phase of improvements carried out as 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.
Martin Fletcher, Leicester City Council director of highways, said: “This is a major scheme that will make huge improvements to this important route and its nearby neighbourhoods, including the new development at Waterside.
“It will create safer and more attractive routes for residents and pedestrians. But the work will also improve this important route and its busy junction for cyclists, for the public transport network and for motorists.
"We’re working hard to keep disruption to a minimum. 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.