Access tunnel to Liverpool's Paradise project finally completed

Sep 29 2007 by Staff Reporter, Liverpool Daily Post

WORK has been completed on Liverpool’s third road tunnel, planned to take traffic into the heart of Grosvenor’s £1bn Liverpool One Paradise project.

Contractor Laing O’Rourke announced last night it has achieved another important milestone in Europe’s biggest regeneration scheme by completing structural work on the tunnels and ramps that form the access to the 2,000-space underground park.

For almost a year, traffic diversions have been in place along The Strand, to enable contractors to build the ramps and tunnel.

It will allow motorists to drive directly from The Strand into the newly-created multi-level car park beneath Chavasse Park.

Peter Jones, Laing O’Rourke’s project manager, said: “While it’s much easier to see progress on construction work taking place above the ground, it’s always intriguing to see what happens below ground.

“For the past 12 months, we have been working beneath The Strand and into Chavasse Park to form the access ramps and tunnels that will eventually lead shoppers into the new car park.

“The engineering project has required the team to dig seven metres (almost 23 ft) below the ground and excavate 4,000 cubic metres of soil ,while supporting existing gas and water mains.

“During this time, we had to redirect the flow of traffic along a section of The Strand, and I must say the Merseyside motorists have been very patient.”

As the highways improvements between James Street and Liver Street continue, as part of the road project, motorists will now see the final phases of alterations along The Strand.

Mr Jones added: “When we were creating the tunnels, we had to temporarily divert southbound traffic onto the northbound carriageway.

“Now that the structural work is complete, we can switch the southbound traffic back to its permanent location.

“During this weekend (today and tomorrow), there will be a series of night-time single lane closures so that we can get the carriageway ready for this move. From Monday morning – October 1 – the southbound carriageway won’t be affected by the traffic switch and it will remain in its present location.

“For safety reasons, during the night-time lane closures, we’ll also close the southbound pedestrian footway and divert people to the northbound/ dockside footway between James Street and Liver Street.”

No date has yet been announced for the opening of the new underground car park. It is expected to be next spring when Liverpool One throws opens its doors.