£66m package to improve Liverpool’s transport

URBAN TRANSPORT

A £45m package of improvements to transport and the public realm in Liverpool city centre is to be procured by the city council, alongside a project to complete the dualling of a radial road. 

The ‘Liverpool city centre major scheme’ has eight components. One will see improvements made to The Strand, the dual carriageway that separates the city centre from the waterfront. The road will be reduced from eight lanes to four. Pedestrian connections across the road will be improved and a north-south cycleway installed. 

Public realm improvements will be made to the Dales Street/Victoria Street area, and an east-west cycle route created between Lime Street and the waterfront.

Pedestrian access will be improved between Lime Street railway station and the city centre.

A new bus layover and interchange close to the existing facility in Queen Square will be built to reduce the number of empty buses in the city centre and remove on-street layover of buses. This will be supported by a new bus routing strategy for the city centre. The council says Queen Square will become the bus station for all northbound routes with Paradise Street bus station serving southbound routes.

A city centre coach park will also be provided.

The city centre major scheme has a budget of £44.7m, of which £38.4m is coming from the Local Growth Fund and £6.3m is a local contribution. Delivery is scheduled for 2017/18 and 2018/19. 

In a separate project, the council is to complete the dualling of the A565, the main road through the north of the city, connecting Liverpool city centre with Southport in neighbouring Sefton Council.

Two remaining single carriageway sections of the road in the city will be dualled and the King Edward Street/Leeds Street junction improved. The project has a budget of £21.6m of which the Local Growth Fund will provide £13.3m, Liverpool City Council £6.4m, and Sefton Council £2m.

The A565 project was designated a ‘retained’ Local Growth Fund scheme by the DfT, meaning that the business case had to be assessed by the DfT and final approval rested with ministers. The council says, however, that at the end of June the DfT removed the project from the retained list; it will now be assessed and approved by the Liverpool City Region Local Enterprise Partnership.

All the projects are to be procured using Lot 2 of Highways England’s collaborative delivery framework, which Liverpool has recently used to procure bridge and tunnel repair works. The Lot covers schemes with a value of £5m – £25m. Four contractors are on the framework: Geoffrey Osborne, Interserve Construction, John Graham Construction, and VolkerFitzpatrick.

For the Liverpool city centre major scheme, the components will be split in two – the Strand, and the other seven projects.