MOTORISTS FACE YEAR OF DELAYS
COMMUTERS WARNED NEW ROADWORKS WILL DOUBLE TRAVEL TIMES IN AND OUT OF CITY CENTRE
COMMUTERS are being warned their journeys in and out of Manchester city centre could DOUBLE in length as year-long roadworks get underway.
Work will begin on improvements to some of the city’s busiest junctions at the end of the Mancunian Way and on Regent Road and the M602 on August 29.
The first phase of construction includes work at four key interchanges:
■ The junction of Dawson Street, Regent Road, Trinity Way and Water Street
■ The junction of Regent Road and Ordsall Lane in Salford
■ The junction of Regent Road and Oldfield Street in Salford
■ The Mancunian Way/A56 Chester Road/Deansgate roundabout
As part of the £15m project to tackle the notorious bottleneck, Regent Road – from Oldfield Road to the Mancunian Way – will be reduced from two lanes to one lane in each direction.
Neighbouring routes – including the M602 and Mancunian Way, Chester Road, Princess Road, A580 East Lancs Road, Trinity Way, Hyde Road, Stockport Road and Ashton Old Road – are also expected to be busier. A 24-hour control centre will monitor congestion and traffic lights and signals will be altered to try to reduce delays. But morning travel times into the city centre via the M602, Regent Road and on to the Mancunian Way are still expected to jump from around 15 to 20 minutes to at least 25 to 30 minutes.
Journeys in the opposite direction in the evening rush hour will increase from around 20 to 25 minutes to at least 40 to 45 minutes, Transport for Greater Manchester (TfGM) bosses say.
A second phase, once this is complete, will then see work at the junction of Trinity Way and Hampson Street, Salford, and the junction of Hampson Street, East Ordsall Lane and Middlewood Street in Salford.
The changes will eventually increase capacity on the ring road and its key junctions by 20 per cent, in turn ‘significantly’ reducing congestion and improving air quality, town hall chiefs claim.
They have acknowledged the short-term pain it is likely to cause, saying ‘there is no way to do this without there being an impact on journey times for drivers while works take place.’
The work is expected to take at least a year and drivers who regularly use the routes are asked to consider changes to their commute to minimise the impact. Council bosses are asking people to look at alternative routes – and those who have flexible hours to consider travelling outside peak times or think about walking, cycling or using public transport instead. Coun Angeliki Stogia, executive member for environment, planning and transport at Manchester council, said: “These works will deliver real and lasting improvements to this busy route which will benefit drivers, cyclists and pedestrians alike. There is unfortunately no way to deliver such major works without them involving some measure of frustration and inconvenience for drivers in the short-term.”
Coun Roger Jones, from Salford council, said: “We’d like to apologise for this but the aim of the works is to make a positive difference to journey times in the long-term.”