Western Road is reopening to eastbound buses today, ending eight months of diversions.
Temporary traffic lights will now be used while the major project to improve Western Road for pedestrians continues.
Brighton and Hove City Council says it will need to temporarily close Preston Street and Sillwood Road to through traffic.
It said: “We’re going to be reopening Western Road to eastbound buses today.
“We want to thank the residents impacted for their patience while the diversion has been in place.”
Last month, the council said Western Road will be closed overnight in stages from August to January.
When work first started on Western Road, buses were diverted via Upper North Street.
But when that closed because of damaged water mains, buses were instead diverted via Seven Dials, causing delays to services across the city.
Residents of the roads initially used for the diversion took the council to court over a temporary traffic regulation order (TTRO) which removed the weight restriction in Upper North Street allowing buses to be diverted along it.
However, the case was never formally heard as the diversion was due to end before a full hearing was scheduled.
Remaining pavement and road resurfacing work between Montpelier Road and Churchill Square will now happen from December, with the redesign of the junction with Dyke Road and work opposite Churchill Square due to happen from January to June next year. This may be subject to change.
The improvements to Western Road include
- a resurfaced road
- resurfaced and tidier pavements
- a simpler road layout
- improved pedestrian crossings
- more cycle parking, seating, and tree planting
- new street lighting
The changes also include redesigning the Dyke Road junction with Western Road. This will reduce waiting times for buses and pedestrians here and at the Clock Tower.
Well done to the new council for bringing forward this re-opening of the road.
For us regular bus users, the scenic extra drive via the Seven Dials one way system soon lost its appeal.
I’m also pleased to see we seem to have lost the pointless cycle lane from the plans – given that this route is supposed to be car-free anyway.
The only question left was why this scheme went ahead in the first place – when all they really needed to do was to resurface the pot-holed road and clean the chewing gum off the sidewalk paving.
As this is the sole and key public transport route across the city, we really need to make sure the buses can travel freely through there.
I live in west Hove and it takes me an hour to walk into the city centre. The recent bus journey times, with all the hold ups and diversions, haven’t been much better.
Great to see this reopen both ways but we are a long way off that artistic impression – literally some new paving slabs and a bit of tarmac.
It may yet be the nicest looking ghost shopping centre…
When do they repair all the damage done to Upper North Street, Montpelier Road and Regent Hill ?
Can’t help thinking what if Brighton Council had a clue. “A simplified road layout”? Western Road is a straight road!
How much more has it cost, having to do all the repairs to Upper North St and Montpelier?
The whole thing has been a waste of money, providing very little ‘improvement’. Will the Transport Dept at bhcc learn any lessons? I doubt it very much!
I wonder if taxpayers money would have been better spent reducing business rates/rents to encourage more businesses into the all to familiar vacant closed shops along Western Road, rather than just expanding the pavements. At a time when we are all experiencing hardship it is gauling to see taxpayers money gone to waste on pavements. We need to encourage more businesses here in Brighton, creating more jobs and more revenue for the city. Of course with the bus diversions, this has also angered residents along the diverted route – noise/pollution/traffic jams etc. Alarmingly these works are not over and we will have more troubles to come with the Dyke Road/Western Road phase, Aug to Jan 2024. Just how much has this utterly futile project cost? P.S. there’s now lots more muck and chewing gum on the extra pavements – will we get extra gum removal cleaners and who will pay for this service? Will that be the taxpayers? The bus drivers need praise as they have taken the brunt of the frustration from passengers and had to put up with the extra work this project has created. Thank you for reading. From just a shopper. X