Hall Lane bottleneck solution given go-ahead

[Kev]

Hall Lane bottleneck solution given go-ahead

Nov 5 2008 By Ben Schofield

A ?20m overhaul of an arterial route into Liverpool has been given the go-ahead by Government.

The Hall Lane Strategic Gateway aims to ease one of the biggest bottlenecks on the city?s roads. Drivers heading into the city centre from the M62 should suffer fewer delays.

A public inquiry was held in April last year into the compulsory purchase and road orders needed for the scheme.

Three objections lodged at the start of the inquiry were withdrawn.

A senior councillor said "real progress" can now be made to create a "first class gateway" into the city.

Traffic heading to the city centre from Edge Lane, must turn either left or right into Hall Lane or Towerlands Street at the top of Mount Vernon Green.

But both of these routes are residential roads and traffic is frequently snarled up.

The scheme, funded by the Department for Transport and the European Regional Development Fund, will include new road alignments to take traffic away from the residential areas of Hall Lane and Towerlands Street and will be in dual carriageway for most of its length.

There will also be a new junction at West Derby Street and Crown Street directing traffic north along a new stretch of road towards Low Hill and then on to Islington, or south along a realigned Grove Street.

To improve traffic flow between Islington and Grove Street the junction at Low Hill will be upgraded.

Pedestrian facilities will be provided wherever there are traffic lights and cycling facilities are also being introduced. The scheme will include "extensive landscaping and improved lighting".

Peter Millea, executive member for assets and development, said: "This means that we can make real progress on a scheme which has the support of the local community as well as road users.

"The city needs first-rate gateways into our centre - that is a key part of our regeneration. The Hall Lane scheme will do that, helping both motorists and pedestrians and providing a much better image for visitors. And it will produce a much better environment for the neighbourhood.

"It will also provide a new frontage to the Royal Liverpool Hospital development. We have worked closely with the hospital trust to ensure we could have this scheme and a first-class hospital in the city."

Work is scheduled to start early in 2009 and be completed in Autumn 2010.

[The Dead Cat]

Cheers for that! I've been wondering what's been going on out side the university for a while!

I've just had a quick gander at the council's website and found the plans for the Hall Lane scheme... it looks rather big!

http://www.liverpool.gov.uk/Images/tcm21-155736.pdf

[Samp]

Isn?t it typical of the powers that be, they are going to build a hospital at Low Hill and then a major road will be built to flow around it.

What price the health of the patients with all the fumes from the traffic.

[fortinian]

Would you rather they built a hospital miles out in the countryside so that ambulances, visitors and outpatients and blood/organ donation vans would have to travel down narrow country lanes to get to it?

A busy city hospital needs a top notch transport system and the new road isn't to encourage more traffic, it's to create a solution for the already over-burdened roads in the area.

Some people are just never happy.

[Cadfael]

I just hope that when it's all done and dusted, that it really does improve traffic flow. Liverpool seems to have a strange way of adding more roads only for more cars just to fill it.

When I worked with Elizabeth Pascoe on the Edge Lane website, we came up with a cracking solution to the build up of traffic and actually proved that this would work by going in to detail and setting up programmes that would calculate speed journeys.

I look forward to anything that helps the transport system in Liverpool as getting to Wavertree from town centre is a nightmare - I just hope that it is a successful project.

[Ged]

Straight down Mount Vernon always works for me

[Cadfael]

Wavertree Road/Grinfield Street does it for me too.

[Ged]

There you go then - two options. Cancel Hall Lane

[Samp]

Would you rather they built a hospital miles out in the countryside so that ambulances, visitors and outpatients and blood/organ donation vans would have to travel down narrow country lanes to get to it?

A busy city hospital needs a top notch transport system and the new road isn't to encourage more traffic, it's to create a solution for the already over-burdened roads in the area.

Some people are just never happy.

It's not a question of being happy or unhappy. I am just stating my opinion.

I would rather they built the hospital in the area of Everton Park, near the site of the old John Bagot hospital, plenty of road access there and quieter too.

As for the transport system, they could have used the origional plan and continued underground from the rocket and come out the top of Islington.

They would only have had to move a few prefabricated units (Brunswick road,Erskine St) and not an entire community at Edge Hill.

[petromax]

I've looked at the plan for a good two minutes and I defy anyone to tell me what this is actually going to look like.

It's a pity that Urban Design doesn't get a look in when there are road engineers about. Have we learnt nothing from the demise of Scottie Road?

[Ged]

It'll probably look a mess. If that church is staying on the corner of Durning Road, I don't see how the widening process is going to happen at that point?

[Cadfael]

It'll probably look a mess. If that church is staying on the corner of Durning Road, I don't see how the widening process is going to happen at that point?

Exactly the point that Elizabeth Pascoe started campaigning for. She said that she would lose her house because they were initially going to demolish the church, and then found out that the council themselves had listed the church and couldn't touch it.

That's the biggest problem with the whole of Edge Lane. They can knock down the whole of Edge Hill if they wanted to, but they cannot get around the bottle neck of the church at all - which is one of the worst areas.

I've had my eye on the church for a while but as yet, no mysterious or accidental fires have been started so it would have to be demolished...

[Ged]

Listing buildings and then de-listing them for demolition purposes has never stopped the council in the past though Cad.

[Cadfael]

Indeed - but everyone I know of who campaigned for the alternative Edge Lane scheme is now watching that church very closely. Not just local residents but Save Britain's Heritage/English Heritage for a start.

A report on the state of the church can be found here from 2003:

http://www.edge-lane.info/#/save-our...age/4531095014

It lists the church as being in a bad way, some have said that this was purposely left to rot to fall down in time for this grand scheme.
As we'll see it, we'll get some new prefab houses along Edge Lane bunched up to a historic Grade 2 listed church.

[fortinian]

I've looked at the plan for a good two minutes and I defy anyone to tell me what this is actually going to look like.

It's a pity that Urban Design doesn't get a look in when there are road engineers about. Have we learnt nothing from the demise of Scottie Road?

I think everything that could be said about the Edge Lane Scheme has already been said in a different thread on this forum...

Regarding the Hall Lane Scheme, no residential properties will be adversely effected. The bypass travels mainly through the land that is currently used as the Royal Hospital Car Park, the wasteground near and including Fort Knox.

The only bit i'm a little upset about is the reduction of Henderson Green slightly and the patch of grass between Smithdown Lane/Crown Street.

They are even making parking bay on Smithdown Lane opposite Archbishop Blanch for safer access to the school for loading/unloading/picking up/dropping off children.

Not to mention bicycle lanes, different graded tarmac on the hill for icy/slippery coniditons.

As for Sacred Heart Church... have you not looked at the plans? Clearly the bypass goes around the church with a new landscaped car-park and safe access to Sacred Heart off Prescot Street.

Onc part of the reason for this scheme is that many householders living along Hall Lane cannot get reasonable access to their properties with the incredible amount of traffic that uses Hall Lane/Prescot Road to get into the city centre.

As for it probably looking a mess... well it can't look much worse than it does now can it?