44 WEEKS FOR ‘ESSENTIAL UTILITY WORKS’
TH Real Estate – developer of the new St James Quarter – aims to partially shut Leith Street to most traffic for up to 44 weeks between the 2017 and 2018 Edinburgh Festivals.
The Edinburgh International Festival 2017 ends on 28 August this year, and the next one begins on 3 August 2018. That leaves a total window of 48 weeks and two days.
Perry statement
THRE Director of Development Martin Perry told Spurtle:
The development team has been working closely with the City of Edinburgh Council to carefully plan the best approach for essential utility works around the Edinburgh St James development. Our recommended approach has been supported by the Council’s City Wide Traffic Management Group, which includes representatives from the Council, local transport providers and emergency services.
These works will allow us to reconfigure and renew the whole Leith Street corridor and help facilitate the wider regeneration of Picardy Place and the East End in a way that minimises disruption for residents, businesses and the travelling public. By renewing and enhancing local infrastructure as part of the Edinburgh St James scheme, we are also greatly reducing the requirement for future works and repairs, thereby minimising future disruption around the completed environment.
‘Reducing disruption’
To ensure we carry out these works as safely and as efficiently as possible, the best approach is a partial closure of Leith Street for a maximum of 44 weeks. These would be contained between the end of the 2017 Edinburgh Festival and the start of the 2018 Edinburgh Festival, mitigating any unnecessary disruption to the city. This proposal will allow the contractors to carry out all of the works simultaneously, reducing disruption.
During this period, the street will remain open to pedestrians and cyclists, with access for emergency services maintained throughout. An enhanced diversion route, with increased capacity, will be put in place for all other traffic in order to reduce congestion within the city centre, whilst access to Greenside Row and Calton Road will also be maintained for local businesses and parking.
Subject to further discussion with the Council on this recommendation, the development team will engage with the local community to ensure that the works are well publicised and that any temporary arrangements are fully understood.
Dead bat
City of Edinburgh Council is playing a dead bat for now.
A spokesperson there says: ‘The Edinburgh St James development will require major essential works to be carried out on Leith Street, commencing later this year. Discussions about this work are ongoing between the Council, the developer and the contractor and a public engagement process will be undertaken as early as possible.’
We hear elsewhere that a report on the recommendation is expected to go before the Transport & Environment Committee on 21 March.
Disquiet and diversions
Both parties portray the likely closure this September as prudent and pragmatic. Behind the scenes, though, Spurtle hears some CEC officials and councillors are dismayed at the potential chaos that may ensue, and furious given past assurances by the developer that no such operation would be required.
‘Shutting Leith Street when the Greenside Link Bridge went in was inconvenient but understandable,’ one insider told us. ‘But 44 weeks is a completely different order of magnitude.’
The same source suggests the closure could become politically toxic before May’s local-authority election, with the public’s patience already worn thin by CEC’s perceived failings in contract negotiations over PPI schools, flood defences and the trams.
Spurtle has no new information on an ‘enhanced diversion route, with increased capacity’, but we would expect to see increased volumes of traffic using London and Easter Roads and Royal Terrace, Queen Street, Hanover Street and the Mound.
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