£7.5m road scheme to start
BRIDGE WORK AND BUS LANES PART OF PROJECT
A £7.5 MILLION improvement scheme for a Leicester road will get under way this month.
Work in Abbey Park Road will include a new footbridge, two new bus lanes and improvements to junctions.
The plans, announced by Leicester City Council, focus on the 3.5m-wide footbridge, which will run parallel to the road bridge and be usable by pedestrians and cyclists.
Extensive maintenance work will be carried out on the road bridges crossing the river and canal, which will result in the road being closed for an extended period in the spring.
Camera-enforced bus lanes will run in both directions along the road as part of a plan to give more priority to public transport and encourage more people to use the bus.
General traffic will be reduced to one lane. The council said the project has been “carefully modelled and designed” to avoid delays and congestion.
The small area of car parking in front of the main gates of Abbey Park will be removed, as part of plans to create a “more welcoming approach” into the park.
Footpaths are to be widened, an e-bike docking station will be installed to the west of the River Soar and roads will be resurfaced.
Improvements are to be made to Abbey Park Road’s busy junction with the A6 Abbey Lane and Blackbird Road, and also at the nearby junction with Exploration Drive.
Work will be carried out to remodel both junctions to give greater priority to buses.
The current single lane right turn from Abbey Park Road on to Abbey Lane is a pinch point for buses and gets congested at peak times.
The council is proposing to change the junction to allow traffic to turn right in to Abbey Lane from two of the three lanes at the junction of Abbey Park Road.
This will involve remodelling the splitter islands and a major realignment of the junction. At the same time, the traffic signals will be upgraded and pedestrian crossings improved.
Work will also be carried out to address delays at the junction of Abbey Lane and Exploration Drive and to improve access to Pioneer Park.
A longer right turn lane will be created for outbound traffic turning right into Exploration Drive from Abbey Lane. This will run from the junction of Byford Way to Exploration Drive.
The scheme is expected to take up to 18 months to complete.
Work on the junction will begin in October 2021 and will take about six months, while extensive maintenance work on the road bridge is scheduled to start in the spring.
Deputy mayor Councillor Adam
Clarke said: “It is vital we continue to invest in encouraging more people to make the shift to cleaner, greener, healthier and more sustainable transport, not least because traffic is responsible for a quarter of our city’s carbon emissions.
“This ambitious proposal to revamp Abbey Park Road will help radically change the way that people think about travelling on this busy route.
“As it stands, the road bridge can be a daunting prospect for cyclists, and the introduction of a footbridge will make this a much more appealing and safer route for all road users.
“Ensuring our bus services are reliable and have priority over general traffic on important routes is really important in encouraging more people on to buses.
“We know the introduction of bus lanes on busy routes can have a major impact on bus patronage, with increases of up to 13 per cent.
“Along with the expansion of the city-wide network of safe routes for pedestrians and cyclists, investment in public transport will be vital to meeting our commitment to help further improve air quality and helping in response to the climate emergency.”