The City of Edinburgh Council have announced the plans for the next stage of works in
the City Centre which will see new traffic diversions put into place from the start of March.
On 3rd March new diversions will be introduced for buses in the east end of Princes Street. Currently Princes Street has been narrowed to one lane for buses but from the start of March this will be removed to allow the contractors to work over a larger area. North to south access will be available from North Bridge to Leith Street and to the Bus Station via York Place while north-south general traffic access will be through Waverley Bridge onto South St David Street.
From the end of March the current work sites at Shandwick Place and Haymarket are being extended to include West Maitland Street. A revised set of diversions will be put into place when this happens with access continuing for Atholl and Coates Crescents on either side of Shandwick Place, with one end of the crescent being open at any one time. North-south traffic will be maintained through Palmerston Place with through access available via Morrison Street and Torphichen Place. Traffic on Torpichen Place will be reversed to flow from Morrison Street to Palmerston Place. Traffic from Dalry will also be able to travel along Morrison Street which will become two way as far as Torphichen Place.
Any businesses affected by the works will continue to be supported through the “Open for Business” budget. This was recently given extra support when the Council announced a £100,000 injection into the fund which means this years budget is now over half a million pounds.
As part of the “Open for Business” budget an action plan has been announced for traders
in the West End of the City which will include regular parking promotions and a series of special events such as free parking and a come and try session with Scotland’s Rugby stars, Mike Blair and Dave Denton, on Saturday 18th February. These plans were revealed at a special meeting for West End traders so they knew what the Council had planned for the area in the coming period. It was also announced that it is planned to establish a dedicated West End Action Group which will assist in the delivery and monitoring of the proposed
programme of activities.
In a rare piece of early news for the project it has also been confirmed that The Mound
will reopen to taxis, buses, cycles and emergency vehicles from 3rd March – four months ahead of the agreed completion date.
Cllr Gordon Mackenzie, Transport Convener at the City of Edinburgh Council, said: “It is encouraging that work on the tram project continues apace and we will be extending worksites across the city centre to make sure the project is being delivered to programme, as we outlined last December. Thanks to new positive relationships, regular discussions now take place between the council, the contractors and Transport Scotland to ensure the project can be delivered as efficiently as possible. Our proposals for additional support for city centre businesses won the backing of all councillors, in a move that will have a real
and lasting impact for affected traders. We continue to work closely with our partners and other stakeholders, including the businesses themselves, to minimise the impact of the works and to maintain the attractiveness our city centre as a retail and visitor destination.”