Project updates
27 April 2023
Holyrood Road
We are now improving the kerbs, pavements and drainage on Holyrood Road between Gentle’s Entry and Hutton Road, and expect to finish in the first week of May 2023.
Following this, road resurfacing will start on Tuesday 9 May 2023. This will be done at night, between 7pm and 6am. We are splitting the work into three phases to keep disruption to a minimum and estimate that each phase will take one week. Road closures on Holyrood Road will be in place during these hours but will open to traffic during the day.
After completing road resurfacing at Holyrood Road, we will start to install the cycle segregation units on the westbound lanes. This will take around three weeks and we are due to finish by the end of June 2023.
St John Street and Canongate zebra crossing
We will start work to improve kerbs, pavements and drainage in the first week of May 2023, and will work Monday to Friday during the day. Following this, road resurfacing at St John Street and at Canongate will start. This will be done in phases. St John Street will be closed overnight and a section of Canongate, from the zebra crossing at St John Street, will be closed with traffic diversions in place. Work here is due to finish by the end of June 2023.
9 February 2023
Work is progressing well. We are currently working on pavements during the day at Holyrood Road and work has started at the Viewcraigs Gardens junction. This will continue in phases towards Holyrood Gait. There are temporary traffic lights at Holyrood Road and some parking restrictions are in place. We expect that we will finish this work in March/April 2023.
Please pay attention to areas marked by yellow, no-parking cones because your vehicle may be removed by our parking enforcement contractor.
Following this stage of the project, we will start work on pavements at the St John Street and at Canongate crossing. This will be done during the day and we expect to finish in June 2023.
Road resurfacing at Holyrood Road is planned for May 2023. We will do this in three phases at night with road closures between 7.30pm to 6.30am. The nightshift work will be over three weeks.
After this we will continue road resurfacing at the St John Street and at Canongate crossing at night, and this is estimated to be one week's work.
More information about the overall project
We started improving the roads and pavements on Holyrood Road, St John Street and the Canongate in late January 2023.
These improvements will make the area better for walking, wheeling* and cycling.
As well as road resurfacing on Holyrood Road and St John Street the work will include
- a westbound (uphill) segregated cycle track on Holyrood Road, between Holyrood Gait and Viewcraigs Gardens
- improvements to the zebra crossing on the Canongate that connects the St John Street and Sibbald Walk pends, including a raised table that will make it much easier for anyone with mobility difficulties and also making changes so cyclists are legally permitted to use it
- making the St John Street approach to the improved crossing much more accessible, especially for people using wheelchairs or mobility scooters.
Work started week beginning 30 January 2023 and is expected to last 21 weeks.
*Wheeling refers to people using a mobility scooter, wheelchair, or other wheeled mobility aid, as well as people walking with pushchairs and prams.
Minimising disruption
We have consulted with the road authorities, emergency services and bus operators and we agreed that most of the road resurfacing work needs to take place at night. This is because of the location and to ensure safety of drivers and the workforce.
To minimise noise disturbance at night, the use of louder equipment such as mechanical breakers, planing machines or thermal lances, is not permitted after 11pm. However, road pavers, rollers, mechanical sweepers and trucks are permitted to operate after this time.
Active travel improvements will take place Monday to Friday between 7am and 7pm.
Road resurfacing will take place Monday to Friday between 7pm and 6am.
We may occasionally need to work at weekends.
Traffic management
Traffic restrictions allow us to safely carry out the work and to minimise disruption in the area. Unfortunately, some disruption is inevitable, but we will reduce the impact as much as possible.
Advance information signs will be installed ahead of the work giving specific dates and locations of restrictions.
Bus operators have been informed and information on diversion routes will be provided on the affected stops and on their websites.
Keeping in touch
For further details or updates, please contact transport.designservice@edinburgh.gov.uk or Brendan.Forrester@edinburgh.gov.uk.
Before each phase we will issue more information on progress and traffic restrictions to residents and businesses in the area.