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COUNCILLORS are being urged to press ahead with turning York’s Leeman Road tunnel into a one way carriageway controlled by traffic lights – despite claims it could cause long queues.
The proposal is one of a series of ‘reserved matters’ being considered by City of York Council planning committee next week for the first phase of infrastructure works for the massive York Central development.
Outline permission was given last year for the redevelopment of the 45 hectare-site behind the railway station, which has the potential to create up to 6,500 jobs and 2,500 homes.
The new application includes plans for more than a mile of segregated cycle and pedestrian pathways through the site, a new bridge across the East Coast Mainline, a new road junction off Water End as the main access into the site and a 4 metre shared pedestrian and cycle bridge added to the Water End bridge.
But it also proposes: “Leeman Road Tunnel reduced to a single carriageway for vehicles with a one-way working system controlled by traffic signals ..Marble Arch designated as a pedestrian only route.. A new two-way segregated cycle lane within Leeman Road linking directly to the existing route on the west side of the sorting office.”
But York Civic Trust says it is ‘very concerned’ about the unrestricted traffic which would pass through the tunnel, saying modelling suggested it could be up to 1,000 vehicles hour.
It warns this could lead to queueing traffic, bus services being less reliable, disruption for commercial and residential community by a flow of traffic equivalent to Gillygate,and the tunnel operating at around 90 per cent capacity, rendering it vulnerable to breakdown and increase in air and noise pollution.
It says: “York Civic Trust recognises that the applicant’s proposal includes for future
revisions of traffic management but are firmly of the opinion that this is such an
important facet of the York Central project that the time to address this is now.”
Royal Mail also raises concerns, saying the tunnel changes will both cause increased journey time and delay to its vehicles travelling west to and from its delivery office.
However, an officer’s report to councillors says: “This concern is noted but the principle of the
closure of Leeman Road and the one-way-working system for the tunnel were accepted at outline stage.”
It also says a Travel Plan for York Central could assist in reducing the projected number of car trips to the development by 30 per cent and suppressing the level of demand through managing the volume of parking on site, particularly at employment sites.
“Highway Officers considered that achieving this would ensure that the impact on the network would be within manageable levels,” it says.
