EIGHTY weeks of disruption for motorists will begin on Monday, March 11, when a £4.3 million scheme to reconstruct Peel Road gets under way.
Tynwald last week gave the green light to the scheme when members approved funding of £4,605,000. This sum includes the costs of design fees and is on top of the £400,000 previously approved by the court to fund the design of the project.
It will be one of the biggest roadworks projects seen in recent years, covering a two thirds of a mile stretch of the cracked and subsiding Peel Road from Quarter Bridge roundabout to the Brown Bobby junction with Circular Road.
Access will be maintained for businesses on Peel Road while the scheme is carried out.
Director of highways Richard Pearson has described Peel Road as a ‘switch back’, which he says has the worst ride quality of any strategic route in the island.
The road surface is severely cracked, the concrete slab sub-base has shifted and there is significant subsidence while there are also problems with drainage, with the road prone to localised flooding.
The works will involve excavation and reconstruction of the carriageway and footpaths, installation of new gullies and kerbs, new traffic signals at Circular Road and Pulrose Road, renewal of street lighting and the signal controlled pedestrian crossing near the fire station and upgrading of bus stops.
In Tynwald, Infrastructure Minister David Cretney explained that the 80 week scheme will comprise 62 weeks for the main reconstruction works on Peel Road, nine weeks for improvements to the Pulrose Road junction and strengthening to the old railway bridge on Pulrose Road - and nine weeks for contingencies.
During the initial nine week work programme on Pulrose Bridge from the traffic lights to just before the Bowl main entrance, this area will be closed to traffic.
All access to the Bowl entrance will be from the Pulrose end following the diversion signs via New Castletown Road and Groves Road.
Once completed this area of road will be opened again to traffic.
When the main works to Peel Road start in May, two-way traffic will be maintained between Pulrose Bridge and the town centre, with one-way traffic implemented, Douglas-bound, on the section between the Quarter Bridge roundabout and Pulrose Bridge after TT week.
During the works there will be some parking for additional cars in the NSC car park behind the Isle of Man Football Association offices for some businesses for a short period, as well as the possible use of the area by the Gym Club for users of the Hyperbaric chamber - but this is yet to be confirmed.
Mr Cretney told Tynwald that while the main contractor will be his department’s operations division, about 42 per cent of the overall value of the works will be sub-contracted out to the private sector with more than 60 per cent of the labour provided by private contractors.
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