Major roadworks through heart of city confirmed

Restrictions should come into force in the week of 11 August

Major roadworks through the heart of a city are set to cause more travel chaos for the next 18 months, council bosses have warned.

A £9m programme to upgrade the A167(M) Central Motorway in Newcastle is due to begin in mid-August and drivers are being told by the city council the project will be "highly disruptive".

Engineers will repair decayed concrete on the elevated viaduct section of the motorway, which runs from the junction with the Great North Road to the New Bridge Street roundabout in the city centre.

The works will require the busy route, which is used by up to 80,000 vehicles a day, to be reduced to one lane in each direction during the daytime and fully closed overnight.

Restrictions are set to start coming into force in the week of 11 August.

Newcastle City Council said the works would "be highly disruptive to the travelling public" once the full overnight closures, which will also include key slip roads, begin.

'Structural issues'

It will add to the travel headache already faced by motorists on central Tyneside, the Local Democracy Reporting Service said.

Two of the Tyne Bridge's four lanes have been closed since last year and the condemned Gateshead Flyover has remained shut ahead of its impending demolition.

Safety checks carried out on the Central Motorway's 1970s structure earlier this year confirmed it had deteriorated, though transport bosses have said the structural issues are not as urgent as those that forced the closure of the Gateshead Flyover last December.

The Labour-run council said major maintenance to the viaduct for the first time since 2004 was needed to "future-proof the structure" and that it had to be done "at the earliest opportunity" to avoid further decay.

The repairs have been planned as part of a larger £41.4m refurbishment scheme, the bulk of which is focused on the ongoing restoration of the Tyne Bridge.