Work on city centre traffic lights ahead of schedule

04 April 2016

Work refurbishing the Market Street/Guild Street traffic lights is a week ahead of schedule.

As a consequence, the north-bound carriageway is restricted to one lane this week while the essential work takes place.

In addition, work on the south-bound carriageway has been restricted to night as much as possible this week due to the expected high volumes of traffic going to Union Square shopping centre during the first week of the Easter holidays. While the work on the south-bound carriageway is being carried out at night where possible, there may be occasions when it is unavoidable for it to happen during the day.

Work started on Monday 14 March and motorists should be aware delays are expected in the area for about eight weeks.

Aberdeen City Council had brought forward the works from the next financial year to 2015/16 due to several recent failures of the lights.

Motorists should be aware this junction is extremely busy and a total failure of the lights would have serious consequences on the traffic flows within the city centre, cause serious delays and affect the public transport network and journey times.

As part of the works it was necessary to re-introduce the closure of the straight ahead lane from Trinity Quay into Guild Street for the safety of the workforce and the increased traffic flows. The closure will be removed on completion of the works.

Aberdeen City Council Communities, Housing and Infrastructure convener Councillor Neil Cooney said: “While it is good the work is ahead of schedule by a week and the lane closure is happening during a traditionally quieter time for city centre traffic, we were conscious about keeping the south-bound road open during the day as Union Square shopping centre will be .

“It is one of the busiest city centre junctions and the work should make a big difference to the reliability of the traffic lights.

“We apologise for any inconvenience caused by the works and we would ask motorists to find an alternative route if at all possible.”