A multi-million pound highway upgrade is set to boost road safety and cut journey times to hospital.
Leeds City Council is to press ahead with plans for Burmantofts Street and Beckett Street, the main route to St James’s University Hospital.
The scheme, which could cost around £21m, would see the installation of a new bus lane, cycle track, wider footpaths and crossings.
The council will tender for a contractor to carry out the works and has applied for funding from the West Yorkshire Combined Authority (WYCA).
A public consultation was carried out last autumn on the Beckett Street Sustainable Transport Corridor project.
A council report said traffic congestion and poor road infrastructure meant long bus journey times and difficulties cycling to St James’s.
It said: “The hospital is a strategic regional medical facility and major employment, education and research site.
“As a 24-7 operational site there is a constant travel demand to the area.”
It is hoped the project will reduce accidents on the stretch of road, where there were 67 casualties, including 13 serious injuries and one fatality, between 2017 and 2023.
Parts of the road would be widened and a new bus lane would operate 24 hours a day.
The council is also seeking to introduce traffic restrictions as part of the scheme.
Southbound right turns into Rider Street and northbound right turns into Accommodation Road would be banned.
The report said a Full Business Case report was submitted to WYCA in March and was expected to be approved in June.
Initial funding of £1.5m was provided to the develop the project before the full costs are agreed.
The report said: “The predicted benefits to travellers will be improved bus journey times and reliability, safer cycling routes and improved safety at signalised junctions.”
By: Don Mort, LDRS
