Leeds Inner Ring Road to be closed to westbound traffic

The Leeds Inner Ring Road will be closed to westbound traffic this weekend to allow further essential maintenance work to take place.



The work is the first of three weekends in March and April when the A58(M)/A64(M) will be closed for further strengthening work on the Woodhouse Tunnel.



Motorists are being warned to plan ahead as the Leeds Inner Ring Road will be fully closed to westbound traffic for the weekends of Friday 20 March 2015, Friday 27 March 2015 and Friday 16 April 2015.



All three weekend closures will start at 7pm on the Friday evening and finish at 6am on the Monday morning.



The works are part of a wider £24.96m maintenance scheme of improvements to the Leeds Inner Ring Road (A58M). Woodhouse Tunnel is the largest structure included in the essential maintenance scheme, which has already seen strengthening work carried out successfully on Lovell Park Bridge and New York Road Flyover.



The closures have been scheduled to avoid major city centre weekend events, where possible. A diversion is signed to help alleviate traffic congestion.



Councillor Richard Lewis, Leeds City Council executive member for transport and economy, said:



“Recent essential work has been carried out to maintain and upgrade the Westgate Footbridge crossing one of the key routes in and out of the city centre.



“This is in addition to further ongoing major work on the Leeds Inner Ring Road. This route is of huge importance to the economy of Leeds and the wider Leeds City Region as a whole so it’s vital that we keep it in good working order.



“Whilst it’s inevitable that a project of this scale will cause some disruption, we’re pleased that through proper management and planning, we’ve been able to keep that disruption to a minimum thus far and the work is progressing well. I would like to thank motorists for their patience during this phase of the work and through future parts of the project.”



The extent of the closures will be:-



Westbound Traffic: The closure will be between the A653 Marsh Lane exit slip and the A58(M) junction with Wellington Street.

Westbound traffic will be diverted via the A653 Marsh Lane, the A61, The Calls, Swine gate, Wellington Street back to A58(M).



For information about the Woodhouse Tunnel works visit www.leeds.gov.uk/woodhousetunnel



ENDS



For media enquiries please contact:

Leeds City Council press office,

Tel: 0113 395 0244