Major works have been finished on the Manchester Street roundabout in Oldham as progress on the town centre extension of Manchester Metrolink continues ahead of its planned opening in 2014. The area has now been completely remodelled and will allow trams and general traffic to flow through the roundabout.
Two sets of Metrolink tracks and two new lanes for general traffic now cross through the roundabout and new traffic signals have been installed at all junctions to make sure that there is the safe movement of general traffic, trams and pedestrians.
Peter Cushing, TfGM’s Metrolink Director, said: “We are delighted to reach another milestone on this exciting and ambitious programme to extend Metrolink into Oldham town centre and across Greater Manchester. This has been a major civil engineering project. The TfGM, MPact Thales and Oldham council highways teams have really risen to the challenge to get the work done while managing to keep the roundabout open to traffic. I’d like to thank motorists for their patience and look forward to seeing trams running through this important gateway to the town next year.”
The next stage will see work commencing to build new pedestrian routes across the roundabout with this expected to start next month. In the meantime a temporary pedestrian route will be provided across the roundabout.
Meanwhile work will continue on the Rochdale town centre extension with part of Milnrow Road being closed from 2100 to 0600 on Tuesday 7, Wednesday 8 and Thursday 9 May. The road surface on Oldham Road is to be resurfaced during these closures with traffic diversions to be put in place.