A7 corridor resurfacing

Nicolson Street corridor resurfacing update 8/6/18

Here is a brief update from the transport engineer managing the welcome resurfacing of Nicolson Street, Clerk Street, South Clerk Street and Newington Road:
". . . . this week we will consolidate our resurfacing works by completing a few small sections at Hope Park Terrace, Bernard Terrace, Lutton Place and East Newington Place. So, for late Friday we should be able to open Lutton Place and Hope Park Terrace again (the latter under temporary lights). Bernard Terrace will remain closed until next week.

Surfacing at Nicolson Street (between West Richmond & St Patrick Square) should also be complete by Saturday morning meaning we will have fully resurfaced from Salisbury Place to West Richmond and all that will be left over that section will be some lining works to be carried out and some minor civils works including new cycle stands, replacing some bollards and removal of some unnecessary street furniture.

Next week we will finish the junction at Bernard Terrace, push on with the footway woks at Hunter Square and we will also resurface South Bridge from Royal Mile to just past Infirmary Street during the evening/nights. This means northbound traffic on the corridor will be diverted at West Nicolson Street (buses will use Nicolson Square / Chapel Street) as we will close both Chambers Street and Infirmary Street at night. The southbound bus stops on South Bridge will also be closed for a couple of days midweek to allow us to repair some ironwork during the day. Although I appreciate South Bridge is just out with your ward, the diversion will cross the boundary.

Once we have completed our works at Bernard Terrace, we will move over to the junction at West Richmond Street and begin to renew the traffic signals at that location."


(Quoted from Cameron Rose's Blog.)

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.