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Fast-track for Liverpool highways projects

Businesses across Liverpool are set to receive a boost with the news that the city council is seeking to speed up its £80 million roads investment programme.

The original plan was to spend £80 million over the coming eight years improving the city’s network of main routes, but on Friday 21 August the council’s Cabinet will be asked to amend the scheme so the road-works are completed by 2019.

Mayor of Liverpool Joe Anderson said: “There are huge economic benefits to having well-maintained, high-quality highways. They keep traffic flowing, keep vehicle running costs low, and by ensuring people and goods can move efficiently, make our city a more desirable place to live, work, visit and do business.”

Work started last year on the highways investment programme, and the first scheme on the A59 Walton Vale and Warbreck Moor has already been completed. Elsewhere, resurfacing of the area around Islington is set to be completed in early September and on Ullet Road in early October, while work on Smithdown Road will start in September 2015.

Several other areas of the city are to benefit from the investment over the next few years, to improve traffic flow .

Councillor Malcolm Kennedy, Cabinet member for regeneration, said: “We are working on those routes which carry huge volumes of traffic, which are of the most strategic importance to the city, and which are in poor condition.

“This work will significantly reduce our highways maintenance backlog over the coming years, and as such, is an important component in the on-going regeneration and development of our city.”

The move is expected to deliver major savings by reducing urgent and on-going highway repairs – which can often be more costly than a planned improvement programme – and reducing public liability claims.

Funding for the work is coming from a mix of the sale of assets such as land and buildings (known as capital receipts), borrowing and external funding from utility companies.

Separately, another £85 million is set to be spent by 2019 on other highways projects which will improve access to the A565 north Liverpool corridor, the Baltic Triangle creative area and the Knowledge Quarter, as well as upgrading facilities for cyclists and pedestrians in the main tourist attraction areas at the waterfront.

This was posted in Bdaily's Members' News section by Simon Malia .