Alterations are being made to traffic arrangements at the East end of Edinburgh city centre from tomorrow, Saturday 1 December 2012.
There will be a series of overnight works to upgrade an existing manhole in Broughton Street located outside St Paul’s and St George’s Church, at the junction of Broughton Street and York Place, in order to accommodate a new drainage connection.
The works include the installation of temporary traffic signals and a temporary bridge structure over the excavation area. Pedestrian access will be maintained at all times.
York Place will have two lanes open for buses using the Edinburgh Bus Station during the festive period. The council says it hopes that this additional bus lane will relieve the bus traffic that was previously using Little King St and St James Place, improving general traffic access to the NCP and John Lewis car parks and delivery access to the retailers.
Transport Convener, Councillor Lesley Hinds welcomed the opening of an additional bus lane on York Place and said:- “The tram work is progressing well in line with the revised schedule and this means that we can adopt a more flexible approach over the festive season, where possible, to improve access. We recognise that this is a very busy time of year for the bus station and the opening of an additional lane will help avoid congestion and help traffic to run smoothly.
“In terms of the manhole upgrading on Broughton Street, the work has been programmed in order to minimise traffic disruption as far as possible by only carrying out overnight works on weekdays. The initial phase of work to excavate the road surface will unfortunately create noise, so we would like to apologise in advance to local residents and businesses and to assure them that every effort will be taken to minimise disruption.”
For the Broughton Street works, the contractor has been granted dispensation to work on Saturdays from 6:00am until 10:00pm and on Sundays from 10:00am until 8:00pm. During the weekdays only overnight working will take place between the hours of 8:00pm until 6:00am.
During daytime hours, the excavation will be covered by the temporary bridge structure and traffic will be managed by the existing traffic signal system.
The bridge structure will be removed in the evening to carry out the works and traffic will be managed through the use of the temporary traffic signals.
The works initially will involve excavating the road surface and will create noise; thereafter, there will be noise no greater than current traffic levels.
After the festive period, York Place will return to one lane for buses accessing the Bus Station. An update will be provided nearer the time.
More information on these works and the Edinburgh Tram Project is available on the Council’s website or by contacting 0800 328 3934 or trams@edinburgh.gov.uk.
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