Work is to begin next week on installing new underground utility trenches as part of a £22m upgrade to a major route into Liverpool city centre.



Contractors, Osborne, are to start the latest phase of the Great Howard Street (A565) scheme on Tuesday, 18 September.

To allow for the works to be carried out the inbound lane, heading south to the city centre, will be closed for four weeks from the junction of Blackstone Street.

The outbound lane will also be reduced to a single lane.

Motorists travelling in to Liverpool from Bootle will be guided by a series of road diversions – at Millers Bridge, Bankhall Street, Sandhills Lane and Boundary Street – with drivers guided to use the Stanley Road, Commercial Road and Vauxhall Road corridor into the city centre.

The utility works are timetabled to run until Friday, 19 October, but will be suspended from Thursday-Sunday, 4-7 October as the city hosts The Giants – a spectacular street theatre performance.

The upgrade of Great Howard Street, which will see it become a full dual carriageway in Autumn 2019, is part of a wider £100m investment in the roads infrastructure along the north Liverpool docks including the relaying of Regent Road with a new cycle lane, as well as the forthcoming creation of two new waterfront link roads to support the city council’s new Cruise Terminal and the new Isle of Man Ferry terminal.

Earlier phases on the Great Howard Street scheme included a new bridge, completed last September, which was designed to support freight traffic for the Liverpool Superport and a new wall to improve access to the historic Stanley Flight canal lock system, which sits within Liverpool’s World Heritage site.

The investment is seen as a crucial to the development of major regeneration schemes such as the Ten Streets creativity district and Peel’s £5bn Liverpool Waters scheme. The works would also benefit Everton FC’s proposed new stadium at Bramley Moore Dock.

Councillor James Noakes, Cabinet member for Highways, said: “Great Howard Street is a critical arterial road for Liverpool connecting Bootle and Sefton to the city centre and its upgrade is vital to the development of the North Liverpool economy – not least the Ten Streets creativity district and the new cruise facilities.

“These utility works are a critical phase of the scheme and unfortunately the only way for our contractors to carry it out is to close off the city centre bound lanes over the next month.

We know this will cause disruption to commuters but fortunately the area is serviced by other major roads and we have tried to ensure the impact is kept to a minimum with the works to be carried out in the shorted possible timeframe.â€

Liverpool City Council is investing a total of £500m across the city’s highways network – from creating new roads to repairing potholes and highway verges.
This was recently boosted by a £200m package to be invested over the next five years across three main elements:

• £160 million in road reconstruction
• £25 million in resurfacing and patching work
• £15 million specifically earmarked for addressing potholes
To assist residents, commuters and business to track current an online map was launched which highlights current and planned road repairs and can be found at : https://liverpool.gov.uk/roadimprovements