£6m Project Jennifer roadworks start
WORK gets underway today on vital highways improvements around the Project Jennifer site in Liverpool.
The £6m scheme, which affects part of Scotland Road around Stanley Road, Kirkdale Road and Great Homer Street, includes a new traffic signal junction, an access road to the development site and much-needed resurfacing.
It will mean lane restrictions, temporary signals and night-time closures until September 2016.
Cllr Malcolm Kennedy, Cabinet member for regeneration said: “We are taking the opportunity to not just create an entrance to the Project Jennifer site, but also put in new traffic lights and carry out a much needed resurfacing of the road.
“Anyone who uses that route regularly knows that the road surface desperately needed replacing and when it is completed this work will make for a much smoother journey for motorists.
“I know this will cause some delays for motorists, but we have carefully planned the work to minimise disruption and major closures will take place at night so they impact on as few people as possible.”
Work on four other major schemes totalling £9m is also getting underway over the next few weeks.
They are: Queens Drive/Mill Lane (underway until April 2016) – junction improvement and improved pedestrian crossing facilities for new retail stores and HQ for Merseyside School For Deaf (£500,000); Smithdown Road from Gainsborough Road to Allerton Road (January 18 to August 2016) – highways maintenance and resurfacing, junction improvements and improved crossing facilities. There will be lane restrictions, temporary signals and night-time closures (£3.5m).
Queen Square Bus Station (January 24 to March 2016) – highway maintenance, resurfacing and traffic signals upgrade (£620,000). There will be lane restrictions and night-time closures.
East Lancs Road from Stopgate Lane to Retail Park (February to August 2016) – highways maintenance and resurfacing. There will be lane restrictions, temporary signals and night-time closures (£4.5m).
Cllr Kennedy added: “We know all of this work will cause some relatively short term disruption for motorists, but the condition of the roads is one of the biggest complaints we get and unfortunately we can’t fix them without closing off lanes.
“It is vital that we have got an infrastructure that is fit for a modern, growing city.”
Last year, the city council agreed to dramatically speed up its £80m roads investment programme to tackle a significant chunk of the backlog of highway repairs by 2019. It is being funded from a mix of the sale of assets such as land and buildings (known as capital receipts), borrowing and external funding from utility companies.
Separately, another £85 million is being spent on infrastructure improvements in the next few years, with funding coming from cash pots including the Growth Deal and the Highways Challenge Fund.
