Thanks everyone. I've asked my inquirer to check here. I don't know that area of town well & from your descriptions it sounds far more of a nightmare than the western side.
CityCyclingEdinburgh Forum » Infrastructure
Leith Walk Project
(1166 posts)-
Posted 7 years ago #
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"Given that route is the only practical link to the shops and was well established as a desire line well before the development came along, there should be some sort of precedent to maintain foot access through."
Anyone looking at planning applications?
New thread for this area/route??
Posted 7 years ago # -
I've been through the planning application, there's nothing to do with the access during construction that I can find. I might ping a few councillor emails off to see what they can find out.
Posted 7 years ago # -
"
Major diversions will impact 12 city centre bus routes as a result of the Leith Street closure during works to redevelop the St James Centre in the East End.
The road will be shut to all traffic from September 2 until the summer of 2018, resulting in the redirection of day and nighttime bus services.
"
Posted 7 years ago # -
The council has put up big yellow signs along the upper part of Leith Walk (Pilrig St - Brunswick Rd), stating that "The cycleway is not in use".
What about some signs for the lower part, reading "The cycle lane is not a parking/loading/undertaking lane"? Oh, but that would inconvenience car drivers...
Posted 7 years ago # -
EEN says:
"Leith Street will remain open to pedestrians, cyclists and emergency services throughout the closure"
See if this tallies with what kaputnik might find out.
Posted 7 years ago # -
The council has put up big yellow signs along the upper part of Leith Walk (Pilrig St - Brunswick Rd), stating that "The cycleway is not in use".
That's bloody annoying. I use the cycleway uphill on a fairly regular basis. This will now give me further headaches as pedestrians get angry with me for cycling on the cycle path...
Posted 7 years ago # -
"The road will be shut to all traffic from September 2 until the summer of 2018"
That's nice and vague. I predict a calendar year of this hellish traffic merry-go-round, with it stopping just in time for next year's Festivus.
Posted 7 years ago # -
They've been more specific before and you're basically right.
Posted 7 years ago # -
a calendar year of this hellish traffic
It won't be that bad. Some traffic will evaporate.
In fact, the best thing that can be done for Edinburgh is to start closing off (to cars) through-routes across the city centre
Posted 7 years ago # -
"It won't be that bad. "
It's already that bad, since they started re-jigging the signals in the new "gyrator" the council have obligingly set up for the diversion on behalf of the St James developers.
It will only get worse once every bus service that normally uses Leith Street has to divert around the corner of London Road and Montrose Terrace.
I predict a lot of half empty buses as people realise it's quicker to walk. My son has already made this decision going to high school...
Posted 7 years ago # -
as people realise it's quicker to walk
Traffic evaporation in a nutshell
Posted 7 years ago # -
It's already that bad, since they started re-jigging the signals in the new "gyrator" the council have obligingly set up for the diversion on behalf of the St James developers.
They will be paying for it. And allegedly capacity is increasing. I think the worst "chaos" will be around alternative cross-city routes.
It will only get worse once every bus service that normally uses Leith Street has to divert around the corner of London Road and Montrose Terrace.
Aren't they mostly/all going via St. Andrew Square (where it looks like they will have an increased degree of exclusivity)?
Posted 7 years ago # -
"
Dear Stakeholder
Stakeholder Update 107
Leith Programme – Phase 4 (Iona Street to Brunswick Street)
As of Monday 4th September, following the Edinburgh festival embargo, our Contractor, Crummock, will be returning to Leith Walk to complete Phase 4 of the Leith Programme. We anticipate completing these works by Friday 3rd November (being an 8 week construction programme). The works will be completed in planned phases, and include the following:
- Full road resurfacing of Leith Walk from Iona Street to Brunswick Street, and associated road markings
- Safety markings to the cycleway, allowing the cycleway to be formally put into use
- Implementation of the 2-stage right turn for cyclists at the McDonald Road/Brunswick Road junction
- Construction of raised tables at Iona, Albert and Brunswick Street
- Completion of footway paving at Brunswick Street
- Completion of Scottish Water works, and any associated footpath works at Croall Place
- Installation of 31 nr bicycle racks
- Making good any defects noted to previously completed worksReturning to site will also necessitate the re-mobilisation of a compound for the duration of the remaining works. This will be sited on Brunswick Road which will therefore be closed from 4th September until the 1st week after the works are programmed to be completed (to allow for demobilisation) which, at this time, will be Friday 10th November.
The remaining works will require a period of time for road closures to all streets off Leith Walk between Iona Street and Brunswick Street. Local diversion routes will be in place for the duration of these road closures. Our programme of surfacing works will commence at Iona Street/Pilrig Street and work southwards up to Brunswick Street. As works progress, we will provide more details in terms of the road closure dates and timescales for works.
As of Monday 4th September, and for that first week, the following works will be taking place on site:
- Brunswick Road will close, and the site compound will be set-up
- Iona Street will close, and works to complete the kerb realignments and footpath paving works will commence
- Scottish Water works will commence at Croall Place (we programme that works to this location will take up to 2 weeks to complete)As before, we intend to issue a weekly update Email to all stakeholders providing information on completed works, planned works for the upcoming week and progress against our programme.
165 Leith Walk
As previously communicated, the former tram depot (located at 165 Leith Walk) is to be demolished and the area cleared to house a creative workspace within part of this site.
Following previous updates, we have been working with our contractor, Dalton Demolition, during this pre demolition phase to obtain all necessary planning, building and listed building approvals. This phase is now at an end and we are on programme to mobilise and to commence a number of site surveys at the start of September with further internal preparation works to allow the erection of safety scaffolding and full demolition to commence in October.
The works are likely to take up to 6 months to complete.
Following completion of the demolition works the area will be cleared and a creative workspaces project will occupy part of this site with the smaller building at the front of the former depot (165a Leith Walk) being retained and refurbished to create a pilot partnership hub delivering local services.
Should you have any queries, or require any further information in regards to the above, please do not hesitate to make contact by using leith.programme@edinburgh.gov.uk.
Kind Regards
Michael"
Posted 7 years ago # -
It's great that these works will finally be complete by the end of the year.
I do wonder though where all the rat running motorists will go with all these road closures combined with the temporary 'gyratory' in Abbeyhill. My best guesses would be:
Holyrood Park
West end of Montgomery Street, Annandale Street and East London Street
Dalmeny Street and Pilrig StreetPosted 7 years ago # -
Brunswick Road ... closed from 4th September until ... 10th November
We must be getting on for Russell Road levels of closures here. Long may they continue.
Posted 7 years ago # -
Safety markings to the cycleway, allowing the cycleway to be formally put into use
(my emphasis)
Posted 7 years ago # -
I do wonder though where all the rat running motorists will go
Andrew Gilligan quote:
"Some people think traffic is like rainwater and the roads are the drains for it. If you narrow the pipe, they say, it will flood. If you block one road, they say, the same amount of traffic will simply spill over to the nearest easiest routes.
"That’s the sort of argument made against our cycle superhighways, or our current proposal to cut rat-running through Regent’s Park by closing some of its gates.
"But in real life, once the builders have finished, the spill never actually happens. The pipe doesn’t flood; some of the water goes away instead. Because traffic isn’t a force of nature. It’s a product of human choices. If you make it easier and nicer for people not to drive, more people will choose not to drive."
Posted 7 years ago # -
I was at a really interesting talk by Tim Harford at the Book Festival last night.
He was talking about the power of disruption and randomness to help discover optimum outcomes. One example he gave was of a study made using Oyster card data to look at people's commuting routes. The study looked at a large group of people who made the same commuting journey for years. A two-day tube strike meant they couldn't use their normal routes so went elsewhere. What was interesting was that after the strike a huge proportion of them never went back to their original route, presumably because the alternative route was better.
I wonder if these closures will see something similar.
Posted 7 years ago # -
"allowing the cycleway to be formally put into use"
Yeah they must be aware folk are using it already...
"I wonder if these closures will see something similar."
My fear is that drivers will "discover" that Holyrood Park and Regent Road are better driving routes (fewer junctions, fewer pesky traffic lights and pedestrian crossings), and they will carry on driving on these routes even after the disruption ends. So the original routes will become slightly less busy, but the new ones will become much busier...
OTOH Alva Place and Rossie Place are now so free from rat-running drivers that it may be a good time to propose Alva Place is closed to through traffic altogether.....that would be a positive outcome.
Posted 7 years ago # -
Toot and peep. Some traffic condensation on Hawkhill Ave this hometime. Considerable traffic deposition on Queen Street, Picardy Place, London Road, Easter Road and generally everywhere around the east. The sooner a couple of thousand extra people realise they'd be far quicker walking or cycling than trying to maintain their personal twelve square metres of roadspace the better.
Posted 7 years ago # -
"Some traffic condensation on Hawkhill Ave this hometime. "
Ratrunners doing the Pilrig-Dalmeny-St Clair St shuffle perchance?
Posted 7 years ago # -
The sooner a couple of thousand extra people realise they'd be far quicker walking or cycling than trying to maintain their personal twelve square metres of roadspace the better.
Shame Cyclists Dismount then eh?
*bangs head against wall*
Posted 7 years ago # -
"
Dear Stakeholder
Tram to Newhaven Update
The Outline Business Case (OBC) for taking Edinburgh’s tram service down to Leith and Newhaven will be published on the Council’s website on Tuesday 29 August at 7.00am.
The document sets out the findings and recommendations resulting from a 20-month programme of detailed work assessing the benefits, impact and likely timescales and cost of completing the remaining 4.6km of tramline 1A.
An accompanying report and the OBC will now be considered at a special meeting of the Transport and Environment Committee on 4 September, before going to Full Council on 21 September.
The report seeks authority to commence a procurement exercise to identify a potential contractor for the project, with a final decision on whether to go ahead with taking the tram to Newhaven, and with which contractor, to follow in autumn 2018.
Some of the key points included in OBC are:
Estimated three-year construction period, including 18 months on Leith Walk, followed by approximately four months of testing and commissioning on the new line.
Compensation and support scheme for affected businesses along the route to be put in place, details of which will be worked up should the decision to enter into a procurement exercise be taken.
Customer and service access to local businesses would be maintained at all time.
Logistic centres and dedicated crossing points would be provided at 150-200m intervals on Leith Walk
Logistic officers would be deployed throughout the day to help businesses with deliveriesYou can see both the report and OBC here from 7.00am on 29 August 2017.
Edinburgh St James update
As part of the plan to help facilitate Edinburgh St James and the wider regeneration of the east end of the city, essential works to reconfigure and renew the whole of Leith Street will soon commence.
To carry out this works programme, a closure of a section of Leith Street is required, between the junction of Princes Street (Waterloo Place) and the turning into Calton Road, for up to ten months. Works will commence from 4 September 2017, with traffic management changes implemented from 5am on Saturday 2 September 2017.
Leith Street will remain open to pedestrians, cyclists and emergency services throughout the closure. Access to Greenside Row and entry to Calton Road from Leith Street will be maintained for local businesses and parking throughout.
In order to keep all traffic flowing efficiently throughout the closure, a clearly marked diversion route with increased capacity is in place via London Road/Montrose Terrace/Easter Road and then on to Regent Road.
For further information, please see: http://www.edinburghstjames.com/construction
Leith Programme and Depot Demolition Projects
With regards to both Leith Programme Phase 4 and the Depot Demolition, all information provided within Update Nr 107 remains as advised, with works to both projects commencing as of Monday 4th September. We will continue to provide weekly updates as both projects continue.
Should you have any further queries in regards to the above, please do not hesitate to contact the Leith Programme Email address.
Kind regards
Michael Motion
Leith Programme Project Team
**********************************************************************"
Posted 7 years ago # -
Not a hint of a cycle facility in any of those pictures. Constitution Street, in particular, looks like hell to cycle on. No "lessons learned" whatsoever. These people are useless.
http://www.heraldscotland.com/news/15499751.Edinburgh_Trams__18_months_of_works_on_Leith_Walk/
Posted 7 years ago # -
Obviously they are planning to devote a whole carriage to bicycles.
Posted 7 years ago # -
@Calum
Agree. If that was built, it would be Haymarket Yards writ large with added tailgating traffic. Not a lot of space on Constitution St so they'd be best devoting some thought and effort to it now.
Posted 7 years ago # -
Travelling up Leith Walk to Waverley Station, I dismounted at the crossing outside the Playhouse and walked the rest of the distance without losing time. We'll see whether next week brings some relief.
Posted 7 years ago # -
The report on the Council website states (Page 26 of the Updated Business Case):
"Several design and scope changes have been made since the cost estimate for the 2015 business case was prepared. These changes have been agreed with the project board. The most significant changes are...Introduction of segregated cycleway on Leith Walk"
Worth keeping the pressure up, to avoid a Haymarket style fiasco, but I don't think the pictures in The Herald are likely to be representative of the scheme.
Posted 7 years ago #
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