A busy city centre road will become one-way as major roadworks start – and this is everything you need to know.
The north and west sections of the ring road surrounding East Park and Watts Park, and Solent University and the Guildhall, will be affected.
The road will be closed in a clockwise direction while a redesign of the route is undertaken.
This is what you need to know about the scheme
When will work start and what does it entail?
Works will begin on Monday, February 5, meaning motorists will only be able to use the road in an anti-clockwise direction.
It is expected to last until the summer, with the work taking place from the junction of Brunswick Place and London Road to the junction of Havelock Road and West Park Road by the BBC Studios.
A series of diversions will be in force while the roadworks are carried out.
The London Road junction will become right turn only as opposed to left turn only as it currently is.
Later this month or in March, the junction with Palmerston Road will also be shut.
Where can I drive?
The anti-clockwise one-way system will be introduced, east to west, on the section of the Ring Road from Charlotte Place to the Civic Centre.
Motorists going west to east will need to use New Road and St Andrew’s Road to travel to Charlotte Place.
Some bus services may be diverted onto alternative routes.
Coming from Southampton Central Station into the City Centre, vehicles will not be able to turn left at the top of the hill at the Civic Centre.
READ MORE: Ring road to become one-way during months of roadworks - What people told us
Instead, motorists will have to travel ahead along New Road in an easterly direction to join the one-way system at Six Dials junction.
This anti-clockwise only system will remain in place throughout the works until completion.
Visit https://transport.southampton.gov.uk/ringroad to read further information about access to surrounding roads.
What improvements will I see?
Cumberland Place/Devonshire Road junction
At Devonshire Road, the traffic lights will be removed and the road will be closed at the Cumberland Place junction to allow the Ring Road to operate more smoothly.
For those crossing Cumberland Place, a push-button controlled pedestrian crossing will replace the traffic signals.
A new ‘pocket park’ at the Devonshire Road junction will also be created through closing the Devonshire Road arm and removing the traffic signals at this junction.
The pocket park aims to create an ‘attractive safe area with additional lighting, seats, planting, and places to rest’.
London Road, Above Bar and Bedford Place Junction, and West Park Road and Commercial Road junction
Here, there will be the refurbishment and modernisation of traffic signals at these junctions.
New technology will see improved efficiency and will add bus priority to improve journey times and reliability.
Bus priority will assist buses in crossing the ring road more efficiently at these two key junctions.
On top of these improvements at the junctions, footways and sections of the road will be resurfaced or repaved with higher quality materials.
Footpath and crossing facilities for people with limited mobility, walking, and cycling will also be upgraded.
Who is funding the work?
The scheme, carried out by Balfour Beatty Living Places, is paid for out of £57m of Government funding awarded to the city.
It forms part of the Transforming Cities Fund which promotes active and sustainable travel in Southampton.
An investment of nearly £70m has been made into the programme, which includes the government’s £57m.
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