Bypass bridge repair to start
DISRUPTION AND DELAYS COULD LAST UP TO SEVEN MONTHS
Reporter A BUSY Tyneside route serving more than 40,000 drivers a day will close on Sunday ahead of a major repair scheme which could last up to seven months.
The A184 Felling bypass will close to all traffic at Heworth Roundabout on Sunday from 6am as work starts on the long-awaited bridge repairs.
Diversions will be in place throughout the day, and access from the A184 to the Lakes Estate at Coniston and to Grange Road and High Lanes will be maintained.
The road closure is temporary – but the A184 will then be reduced to a single lane on either side of Heworth roundabout, and drivers are being warned to expect delays from Monday onwards.
Shields Road either side of the Heworth roundabout will also close on Sunday, and will not reopen to traffic except buses until after the repair work is finished in the summer.
Anneliese Hutchinson, service director for development, transport and public protection at Gateshead Council, said: “We’ve worked hard to devise plans for this complicated repair job which will minimise disruption to the public, but this is an extremely busy and congested route and any repair is bound to cause some delay.
“We know this work will be especially inconvenient for residents of Pelaw and Bill Quay, but we’ve looked at all of the alternatives and all of them would have caused even greater congestion and taken longer to complete.
“On average, more than 42,000 cars use this route every day so it is inevitable that some motorists will experience delays while we carry out this repair work.
“We therefore urge motorists to explore the various travel alternatives or find a different route.
“We are fortunate that the area is well-served by public transport and we are retaining the bus lane along the Felling bypass, so we are urging people to plan their journey and use public transport wherever possible. Metro and train services should also be unaffected by these works.”
Work on Heworth roundabout was initially set to start in the autumn of 2017, but Gateshead Council confirmed it was delayed pending approval from Network Rail.
Structural engineers deem the work on the concrete bridges the roundabout sits on as essential, due to a major risk of ‘spalling’ after water was detected seeping into the bridge structures.
Repair work will involve the complete removal of the road surface to allow the bridge decks to be waterproofed and a new road surface to then be applied.