Liverpool City Centre Connectivity – Lime Street & Brownlow Hill

Comments needed by 15th February 2018
Download PDF plans here

There are plans to improve traffic flow across Liverpool city centre whilst also providing improved cycle links and a better environment for pedestrians.

LIME STREET AREA
To make the Lime Street Station / St Georges Hall area more accessible for pedestrians, it is proposed to reduce the number of traffic lanes on Lime Street, St George’s Place & St John’s Lane to a single lane in each direction with the carriageway widening at junctions to incorporate additional right turn lanes. The section of Lime Street between Elliot Street & Renshaw Street will be a one-way single lane with traffic flowing from Elliot Street to Renshaw Street.
Roe Street (Queens Square bus station) will remain no entry except for buses. The existing access only restriction on the service road section of Roe Street outside the Royal Court will also remain.
As part of the works, Lime Street is to be closed between St John’s Lane and Elliot Street. This is to allow pedestrians greater opportunity to move between Lime Street Station and the St John’s Centre and beyond into the city centre. Access to the St John’s Centre Car Park, the Holiday Inn and other businesses from Elliot Street will be maintained. Access to the St John’s Centre Car Park from the north (London Road & St George’s Lane) will be permitted for cars only via a one-way, single lane access from St George’s Lane to the car park.
The existing bus lane on St John’s Lane, operating from 4pm to 6pm Monday to Saturday is to remain.

Cycle Route
With the number of traffic lanes reduced along the route, it is proposed that cycle facilities be introduced to make the area more accessible and permeable for cyclists.  A segregated cycle route is proposed along the west side of Lime Street, outside St George’s Hall, to tie in to a proposed cycle route along Churchill Way flyover linking up with a similar facility on Tithebarn Street.
In addition, a segregated cycle route is proposed on the north-east side of Lime Street between Skelhorne Street & Renshaw Street to link into a proposed cycle lane on Brownlow Hill.
Both of these segregated cycle facilities will be two-way and cyclists will be segregated from traffic and pedestrians by kerblines either side of the route.
In order to allow pedestrians to cross the narrow one way section of carriageway between St Georges Place and Elliot Street, two areas of shared footway / cycleway are proposed.

Toucan Crossing Facilities
To allow cyclists to access the new cycle route and cross at busy junctions it is proposed to introduce four Toucan crossings. These are to be introduced in the following locations:
•The crossing of Renshaw Street at its junction with Brownlow Hill
•The crossing of Brownlow Hill at its junction with Renshaw Street & Ranelagh Place
•The crossing of Copperas Hill at its junction with Lime Street & Ranelagh Place
•The crossing of Lime Street just north of its junction with St George’s Place
Areas of shared use footway will be required around these Toucan crossings to allow cyclists access to the new facilities.

Access Only Restriction
To reduce the traffic through the area it is proposed that traffic proceeding along Lime Street from the north end must turn onto St George’s Place and vice versa. The only exception to this would be vehicles wishing to access the St John’s Centre Car Park which would be able to do so, but this route would have an access only restriction on it to prevent general through traffic from using it.
Access to the car park and the Holiday Inn Hotel will be maintained from Skelhorne Street and Elliot Street. Vehicles dropping off at the hotel will be able to exit the area towards Renshaw Street via Lime Street. There will be no through route from the Elliot Street / Skelhorne Street end of Lime Street to towards St John’s Lane or the north section of Lime Street.

Waiting & Loading Restrictions
With the number of traffic lanes reduced it is important to keep the carriageway free of parked vehicles to ensure traffic can flow. To achieve this, it is proposed that no waiting at any time and no loading at any time restrictions be introduced throughout the scheme area. The only exceptions to these restrictions would be a new loading bay on the south west side of Lime Street (south east of Elliot Street), and an existing loading bay on the south-east side of Skelhorne Street. Both of these bays will operate from 8am to 6pm every day.
The majority of these restrictions are already in place.
Proposals relating to the Lime Street Area are shown on the attached drawings, numbers CO00205283-LIM-C-01 & 02.

BROWNLOW HILL

Waiting & Loading Restrictions
With the exception of the existing loading bay which is to remain, the full length of Brownlow Hill from Great Newton Street in an easterly direction to its junction with Mount Pleasant, will have no waiting at any time and no loading at any time restrictions.
West of Great Newton Street, to the junction with Renshaw Street, the existing waiting and loading restrictions already in place along Brownlow Hill will remain unchanged. To allow businesses to load and unload goods, the existing loading bays are also to remain.

Cycle Route
It is proposed to introduce a cycle lane on the north side of Brownlow Hill. To allow access to existing bus stops, the cycle lane will be introduced as an advisory lane from its junction with Ranelagh Place /Renshaw Street for a distance of 100m. The cycle lane will then be a mandatory lane to its junction with Great Newton Street. An advisory cycle lane highlights an area of carriageway intended for use by cyclists but motor vehicles may also enter. A mandatory cycle lane is for use by cycles only, any motor vehicle entering the lane is committing an offence. At regular intervals along the mandatory cycle lane, bollards will be introduced to demarcate the lane and protect cyclists. Beyond Great Newton Street, cyclists can continue on street, but no cycle lane will be marked.
Whilst no cycle lane will be introduced on the south side of the carriageway, the presence of cyclists will be highlighted by laying cycle symbols on the carriageway.

Comments on the proposals by 15th February 2018 to oliver.brown@amey.co.uk

One thought on “Liverpool City Centre Connectivity – Lime Street & Brownlow Hill”

  1. Nice to see some progress with cycle infrastructure, but those sharedspaces are horrendously designed: bike pedestrian conflicts would be an overwhelming occurrence, if the volumes of users were anything substantial.
    Makes both an unpleasant experience for cyclist and pedestrian, This would encourage cyclists to just stay on the road-undermining the whole purpose of cycle infrastructure.
    Still I hope it does get built.

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