Final works to Gelderd Road footbridge at Armley Gyratory over the Easter school holidays

Plan ahead for three night time road closures on the Armley Gyratory southbound A643 starting on 2 April and completing on 10 April.

Following the successful replacement of Gelderd Road footbridge in January, Leeds City council are to carry out these final works during the Easter school holidays and require safe access to the site.

A key goal of the Armley Gyratory scheme is to provide improvements for pedestrians and cyclists, as well as enhancing accessibility, and replacing the existing footbridges over Gelderd Road and Spence Lane.

The new Gelderd Road footbridge along with Spence Lane footbridge include accessible ramps to better meet the needs of non-motorised users and people with disabilities. All the new upgraded footbridges are designed to ensure they will need less maintenance work and inspection, over future decades.

These works are planned and co-ordinated across the city and especially with National Highways works on the M621 scheme.

Diversions

To complete the Gelderd Road bridge work, motorists are advised there will be a two-night closure from 8pm to 530am on Tuesday 2 and Wednesday 3 April, along with a further night closure on Wednesday 10 April. With the Armley Gyratory approach to A58 Wellington Road southeast exit closed and Ingram Distributer A643 south bound will be closed, re-opening again outside of these hours.

The diversion in place is 5.5 miles long.

Further details about the works and any future partial weekend closures are on the project website www.leeds.gov.uk/ArmleyGyratory

For the Armley Gyratory footway for people walking or wheeling, there will be a diversion in place until the summer 2024, while works take place on constructing the new bridges.

The work schedule and activities are weather dependant which could change or delay works taking place.

The current phase two Armley structure programme:

Spence Bridge (2a) Summer 2024 bridge construction completion.

Gelderd Bridge (2a) Spring 2024 bridge construction completion.

Wellington Road Bridge (2b) summer 2024 removal of existing bridge and construction over autumn/winter 2024/25 (pending final design/approvals).

Removal and replacement of Gelderd Bridge on 14 January 2024.

Councillor Helen Hayden, Leeds City Council’s executive member for sustainable development and infrastructure, said:

“It was fantastic that we replaced Gelderd Road footbridge in a single weekend in January and amazing achievement by the project team and contractors. Carrying out these final touches needs access to the underside of the bridge and require road closures to undertake the work safely.

“Please plan ahead after the Easter weekend on the nights of the 2, 3 and 10 April and follow the short road diversions in place. We thank everyone for their ongoing patience while we continue to work hard to minimise disruption and thank those who have already changed the way they travel into and around the city centre.

“These bridges work represent transformative changes to the overhead footways for people walking and wheeling – making it easier to get across the gyratory, either going or away from the city centre. The works are also a bridge engineering challenge, as well as programme challenge to carry out, with the least disruption as possible.

“I look forward to seeing these new footway structures built and open in the summer.”