A public information roadshow is to be held next week on a new phase of a £47m programme to change the way people travel around Liverpool city centre.
Liverpool City Council is undertaking the Liverpool City Centre Connectivity (LCCC) scheme to reduce congestion and improve air quality and is on the brink of instigating major changes to key landmark roads – Lime Street and The Strand.
At Lime Street, the city council is to create a segregated cycle lane and create a new public square outside the train station as well as an expanded plateau outside the Grade I listed St George’s Hall. A water feature will also be created at the southern end of the plateau, which lies within the city’s World Heritage site.
To begin in May 2020, Lime Street will be reduced into a single carriageway in each direction, with the southbound lane able to access St Johns Shopping centre car park. South of Lime Street station will be a single lane only, with northbound traffic, including buses, no longer able to travel past the old ABC Cinema and Holiday Inn hotel and will instead need to take a left or right at the Adelphi Hotel junction.
To offset the closure of Lime Street for north bound bus services, a “busgate” will be introduced on Hanover Street, allowing only buses (and taxis) during the day to access Liverpool ONE bus station. The new bus timetable, to come into effect in April, will also contain a new city centre circular service.
Liverpool City Council will monitor these measures and will produce a one year on assessment evaluating the impact on bus passengers.
Works to The Strand are also scheduled to begin in May with the principle aim of making the major thoroughfare a safer highway, following four fatalities in the past two years.
These works have also been designed to make the city’s World Heritage listed waterfront, with its docks, museums, venues and cruise terminal, more accessible for pedestrians with both the removal of a traffic lane and the closure of traffic junctions at Water Street and Mann Island with Goree.
A segregated cycle lane will also be introduced to connect the south of Liverpool to the north, allowing cyclists to ride the full length of the Mersey from Otterspool to Southport. To keep traffic moving along the route, it is proposed that ‘no waiting at any time’ and ‘no loading at any time’ be introduced throughout and around the junctions with adjoining roads.
Based on computer modelling, it is estimated car journeys at peak times along The Strand will be reduced by more than a minute in both directions.
The significant redesigning of how key junctions are used, including the banning of turns cutting across The Strand, will also ensure traffic flow is more fluid meaning less air pollution, as cars are not stopping starting so frequently.
The three–day long LCCC public information roadshow, which will feature videos and detailed information boards, will be held from 10am to 6.30pm on:
- Monday 20, January at RIBA NW, Mann Island
- Tuesday 21, January at Aloft Hotel, North John Street
- Wednesday 22 January at Holiday Inn, Lime Street
Preparatory work on the environmental element of the scheme has already begun on The Strand, with the first phase of an environmentally innovative type of tree planting on the central reservation that has been designed to alleviate local flooding and help the city adapt to future climate change.
The newly planted trees will take the form of a tree Sustainable Urban Drainage system (SUDs) and will make use of any excess surface water on the carriageway, which will be diverted into the tree pit and tree watering system. This will both reduce the need for excess water to go into the drainage system and help to reduce the flooding pressure on the grids and gullies during periods of heavy rainfall. The SUDs approach is being used across the city centre in partnership with the Mersey Forest and the Urban Green UP project.
