Plan ahead: Partial night-time closures around Armley Gyratory and Stanningley Bypass works over summer holidays

From 8pm Monday 24 July until 5:30am Thursday 24 August, there will be daily night-time partial closures around the Armley Gyratory for surfacing works.

Full diversion routes will be in place during this time and local residents will be contacted about how they’re affected.

The highways surfacing works will mark a significant milestone towards phase one construction completion, after the work started in April last year.

The partial closures are planned to coincide with reduced levels of traffic during the school summer holidays.

Leeds City Council’s Connecting Leeds team are working hard to deliver these improvements as quickly as possible during the summer holidays and apologise for some significant night-time disruption to journeys over the coming weeks.

The road will re-open during the daytime with 30mph speed limits and other traffic management measures in place to allow improvements to be carried out safely.

To prepare for these partial closures, Leeds visitors, workers and residents are being urged to plan ahead (search Plan Ahead Leeds or visit www.leeds.gov.uk/planahead) before travelling and to sign up for regular email updates or follow Connecting Leeds on social media. There will also be highways and diversion signage, with targeted communications in affected areas.

The Armley Gyratory works are complex and the work areas have been segmented into seven parts, as work progresses clockwise around the gyratory, with a total of 19 phases of activity. This includes planing the existing carriageway, ironworks, laying binder, tarmac surfacing and associated white lining. Because of the scale of the road surfacing, with different work areas and days, it will need different diversions and local access plans.

These details, along with impacts on local bus services, will be communicated in the weeks ahead of the works.

Stanningley Bypass works and diversions

Works will also take place on Stanningley Bypass during the school summer holidays, with reduced levels of traffic allowing the works to progress as quickly as possible.

From 8am Thursday 27 July until 6am Monday 21 August 2023 road works will take place along the Eastbound A647 Stanningley Bypass. The traffic management will be set up 24/7 between those dates.

To complete this work efficiently and for the safety of all road users, it will require a partial closure of the bypass and some of the access/slip roads, with local diversions. A contraflow system (between Dawson’s Corner roundabout and Swinnow Bridge) will be in operation.

These planned works are part of Leeds City Council’s highway annual maintenance programme. It will complement the successful Westbound joint and resurfacing programme, delivered during 2022.

To minimise potential future disruptions, the council are also looking to allow the maintenance of other services (like street lighting, for example) where it is safe to do so, and within the traffic management set up.

Councillor Helen Hayden, Leeds City Council’s executive member for sustainable development and infrastructure, said:

“I would like to thank road users for their patience in advance during this disruption. The Armley works are progressing well and on track to complete phase one by winter 2023/24.

“Armley Gyratory is a busy strategic route used by thousands of people each day and therefore to partially close it requires careful planning. By carrying out the repair works during the school summer holidays and most importantly at night, we can hopefully limit the disruption with expected lower traffic levels.

“We’re working hard and as fast as we can with our contractors to make these improvements and again thank everyone for their patience. We have done lots of work to try and minimise the disruption these works will create, but no matter what ever the amount of planning there may be some delays.

“We would please like to urge motorists to plan their journey in advance, follow the signed diversion and allow a bit of extra time for their travel. Ahead of starting, we’ll be contacting local people about the impacts of the work. We are putting together a number of signed diversion routes, for each phase of activity to be made available via www.leeds.gov.uk/planahead."