See our videos of the work in progress: here and here.
A major resurfacing and upgrade operation is planned to take place this spring 2018 from Newington Road to South Bridge. Work is due to start in the second week of April and will continue for about 12 weeks. As well as resurfacing, work will be carried out to upgrade traffic lights, remove railings, restore bollards, and generally spruce the place up. A new pedestrian crossing will be created by Drummond Street. Traffic islands will be removed at signal controlled junctions, and the pedestrian refuges on Nicolson Street between Nicolson Square and West Richmond Street will be rationalised.
The work will be carried out in stages, starting on Newington Road at the junction with West Newington Place. When junctions are being worked there may be road closures, with signposted diversions. For example, it expected that East and West Preston Streets will be closed for 3 weeks, with traffic diverted via Bernard Terrace and Hope Park Terrace. Temporary lights will be used at the junction of Bernard Terrace and St Leonard's Street. It is planned to provide a right turn indicative arrow at the South Clerk St/East Preston St junction for right turners on Newington Rd heading into East Preston St. This is the last permitted right turn for northbound traffic until they reach West Richmond St, thus it is fairly well used and during peak times often takes two – three changes of the signals before they can make the right turn.
More "cycle loops" to enable bike parking against sign poles will be installed. These will be of a red, heart shaped design.
By Hunter Square there will be some changes to the road layout, See the diagram. Railings will also be removed from the East Crosscauseway / St Leonard's Street junction.
It is hoped to strike a balance between getting the work done in as short a time as possible with minimising the disruption to traffic flow. This will mean that work will be carried out in the evenings as well as day time, but we have been assured that all noisy work will cease by 11 pm.