Work to restart on stalled traffic scheme after contractor appointed

Work is set to restart on major roadworks in Manchester city centre after a new contractor was appointed to the scheme.

The new main contractors for the Regent Road roadworks were appointed today and will be on site next week with a view to resuming full work as soon as possible.

John Sisk & Son Ltd has been confirmed as the new main contractors who will oversee the completion of the scheme – which will reduce congestion and improve traffic flow and air quality once works have concluded – following the news that previous main contractor Dawnus had gone into administration.

Work ground to a halt on the scheme two weeks ago when sub-contractors were not paid. Many simply downed tools and left the site causing traffic chaos across the city.

The works have caused months of delays on major routes in and out of the city and were scheduled to last a year.

The £15m project was launched in August and South Wales based Dawnus was appointed to the scheme.

Over the last week Manchester highways maintenance staff have been doing work laying kerbs, surfacing pavements and filling holes to ensure the site was ready for the new main contractor to resume work.

The improvement works, known as the Manchester-Salford Inner Relief Route scheme, are being carried out jointly by Manchester City Council and Salford City Council and are funded by the Government’s Local Growth Fund.

The Regent Road works are delivering improvements at four key junctions:

The junction of Dawson Street, Regent Road, Trinity Way and Water Street (Manchester)

The junction of Regent Road and Ordsall Lane (Salford)

The junction of Regent Road and Oldfield Street (Salford)

The junction of the Mancunian Way, the A56 (Chester Road) and the A5607 roundabout (Manchester

Sir Richard Leese, Leader of Manchester City Council, said: “This has been a challenging situation but I am glad that it has been resolved so quickly and that this vital work is now getting back on track.

“We recognise that it’s been frustrating for motorists during this brief period of uncertainty but despite the complexities involved, the good news is that we’ve only lost a short amount of time and do not anticipate significant delay, if any, to the original project timetable.

“We’d like to thank people for bearing with us while this we’ve gone through this process to get the works resumed.”