Royal Parade Scheme Progress

Plymouth’s Royal Parade improvement scheme is on the home straight with resurfacing work due to start next week as well as completing the sawtooth kerb line and paving around newly installed bus shelters.

Overnight closures next week mark the start of the final phase of this scheme which aims to reduce delays at this key bus interchange by creating more stops, cutting queues and double stacking of buses, making services more reliable and helping to make going by bus a more attractive option than the private car.

The final phase involves nighttime working over the next few weeks to cause as little disruption as possible to the travelling public.

A lot of the city centre has been built on top of concrete slabs, with post war construction debris beneath. When these slabs deteriorate, they rock and crack the road. In areas where the slab condition was bad, contractors have repaired and replaced it with full depth carriageway reconstruction during overnight closures in December.

The next series of closures will see the existing road surface removed (known as planing), a ‘binder course’ installed – which is a new sub surface, top surface and then painting on new road markings. The phases will start at Derry’s Cross and move up to St Andrew’s Cross, with planing starting on Monday 12 January, with further work taking place overnight during the following weeks (more detail to follow soon).

Councillor John Stephens, Cabinet member for Strategic Planning and Transport, said: “I’d like to thank everyone for being so patient while we carry out this scheme. We are on the final furlong and this means there will be overnight work and some disruption, but the end is in sight!

He added: “Resurfacing means we are on the home straight. I don’t want to jinx progress by giving a specific end date, but we are weeks away from finishing.

“Royal Parade is massively important to our bus network – there are over 100 buses every hour and over 9 million passenger journeys from or to Royal Parade every year.

“We are working to improve bus services to make it easier for everyone to get to work, school, shops and businesses or see family and with 25 per cent of households in Plymouth without a car, we need to improve sustainable travel choices.”

The key elements of the scheme include redesigning the road with a shallow saw-tooth layout, increasing the number of bus stops from 12 to 15. It will also prevent double stacking, unnecessary idling and improve air quality.

The new layout will improve bus manoeuvrability and safety by reducing the need for buses to reverse out from stops and allow passengers to get on and off from the pavement.

New, bigger shelters are being installed – two have been completed – two are currently going in and 11 more are coming in the next two months. These will have updated bench seating with armrests and more space for wheelchair users and pushchairs. The green roofs will be installed in the Spring when the weather is warmer for the plants.

The paving design around the shelters includes a dark grey banding which acts as reference point for bus drivers to ensure their doors align with the shelter opening when they stop. A bit further back from the kerbs, there’s more space for buses to use their ‘kneeling suspension’ to lower the bus to the kerb for wheelchair access.

The new toucan crossing which allows cyclists to cross without dismounting is complete and an average speed camera system to replace the static cameras is being installed.

High quality granite paving slabs have now been laid along the length of the pavement on this side of Royal Parade to replace worn and slippery concrete slabs.

Next week will see the planing works and closures will be:

Date	Start Time	End Time	Location/Section	Description of Works	Affected Bus Stops	Closed Pedestrian Crossings	Diversion Route
Monday 12 January	7pm	6am	Royal Parade (Eastbound / Shop side)	Planing works	A9	Outside Theatre Royal	Western Approach, Cobourg Street, Charles Street, Exeter Street
Tuesday 13 January	7pm	6am	Royal Parade (Eastbound / Shop side)	Planing works	A9	Armada Way	Western Approach, Cobourg Street, Charles Street, Exeter Street
Wednesday 14 January	7pm	6am	Royal Parade (Eastbound / Shop side)	Planing works	A9	Not in source	Western Approach, Cobourg Street, Charles Street, Exeter Street
Wednesday 14 January	11pm	6am	Royal Parade (Westbound side)	Planing works	A1 to A8	Armada Way and St Andrew’s Cross	Exeter Street, Charles Street, Cobourg Street and Western Approach
Thursday 15 January	7pm	6am	Royal Parade (Eastbound / Shop side)	Planing works	A9	Not in source	Western Approach, Cobourg Street, Charles Street, Exeter Street

Traffic will be diverted via Western Approach, Cobourg Street, Charles Street, Exeter Street when Royal Parade closes east bound and the diversion will be the opposite way for west bound ie Exeter Street, Charles Street, Cobourg Street and Western Approach. Check with bus operators for services during these times as they may take different diversions.

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