Roadworks to accompany Liverpool's 'radical rethink'

Victoria Street will be one of the first roads to be overhauled in the new scheme

A "radical rethink" of Liverpool's major routes will bring with it 15 months of roadworks, the city council has confirmed.

The work, which is part of the council's wider £500m Better Roads programme, is due to begin in January.

Key routes including The Strand, Lime Street, Victoria Street and Moorfields will be affected.

The council said commuters would face delays during the work but information to help will be provided.

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The works will begin with pavement widening, bus layover removal and tree planting on Victoria Street, running from North John Street to the Queensway Tunnel.

The first phase of work will also see a bus hub created on Old Haymarket, improvements to Brownlow Hill, Tithebarn Street and Moorfields, and an expansion of the Riverside Drive coach park, the council said.

The council's lead for highways James Noakes told the Local Democracy Reporting Service the city's "phenomenal growth" over the past two decades had "created many new challenges and new opportunities".

"With a growing residential population, a huge rise in visitors and major developments now taking shape, how we navigate around the city centre needs a radical rethink in key locations and some major improvements," he said.

Dates for the further stages of the work have not been given, but it will include the creating an events space for St George's Plateau, making a new "gateway into the city" on Lime Street and reducing the number of car lanes on The Strand.