Gateshead Flyover closure: Advice for morning commuters and the diversions put in place
by Daniel Hall · ChronicleLiveDiversions remain in place after the closure of a major road into Newcastle city centre over the weekend.
Gateshead Highway Flyover (A167) closed to all traffic immediately on Friday night due to "serious concerns about the structural integrity" of the road, which was built in the 1960s.
On Saturday, Gateshead Council issued a statement essentially urging people to avoid the flyover and areas around it, with the advice still standing on Monday evening. The statement read: "Due to the significant impact of the road closures, our advice to commuters is to avoid travelling at peak times, allow extra time for journeys and use alternative routes and public transport where possible.
"Working from home if you’re able to will also help minimise disruption. Thanks for your patience and understanding."
Where is the Gateshead Flyover?
Gateshead Flyover is part of the A167, and starts south of the Tyne Bridge. It runs above the Park Lane Roundabout and Five Bridges roundabout, parallel with Gateshead High Street, onto Durham Road.
It was built in the 1960s and is one of the main roads into Newcastle city centre from south of the River Tyne.
What was traffic like on Monday?
Transport officials were relieved to see that tailbacks were not as bad as first expected on Monday morning morning. A meeting of Newcastle and Gateshead councils' Joint Bridges Committee heard that traffic on the Tyne Bridge was "not too bad" with outlying routes like the A1 seeming to take most of the diverted traffic.
On Monday afternoon, Gateshead Council thanked drivers for following its advice and helping to avert traffic chaos across Tyneside.
Where is traffic being diverted?
Gateshead Council confirmed the following general diversion route.
The diversion route takes southbound traffic along the A184 Charles Street, left on to Prince Consort Road around the Civic Centre, left on to Arthur Street, right to High West Street and back to the A167 at Five Bridges roundabout. The northbound route is the reverse of these steps.
For more information on the diversions, view the map on Gateshead Council Roadworks website.
Is there any disruption to public transport?
Yes, as you would expect, there is disruption to bus services which usually use the flyover, as they are following the same diversions as private vehicles.
However, the flyover situation has also affected the Tyne and Wear Metro, which is running at a reduced speed between the QEII bridge and Gateshead Stadium in both directions. On Saturday, the speed restriction was just 10km/h, causing heavy delays across the system.
On Sunday, it was raised to 30 km/h, and it has remained that way since. Nexus said that the speed restriction will be in place until Gateshead Council has completed further detailed assessments of the flyover's structure.
Stuart Clarke, Nexus' infrastructure director, said: "This is having a knock on effect on Metro performance. Customers will experience wait times of an extra few minutes in some areas, and should allow extra time for their journeys where possible."
He advised passengers to keep up to date by using the Pop App, Nexus website, information screens and the public address system at stations, and the official Metro Twitter page.
What happens next?
It is not yet clear whether the flyover will be repaired, demolished, or replaced. Coun John McElroy, the council's cabinet member for transport, that engineers: "are still out there looking at whether we can do those short or medium term remedies to get more life out of the viaduct.
"But ultimately we have got to prepare ourselves, as we have for quite a while actually, to say that the life of the viaduct is very imminently going to go and we have to prepare for the future."
Gateshead's Liberal Democrats have called for the flyover to be removed as soon as possible, so that the ground level of the A167 can reopen.
North East mayor Kim McGuinness said on Monday that she was working, alongside council leader Martin Gannon and MP Mark Ferguson, to "raise the profile of this issue very, very urgently with the Secretary of State for Transport, because we cannot carry on like this". It was confirmed by Coun McElroy that the council is in talks with Ms McGuinness' North East Combined Authority (NECA) about how it could help with the redevelopment route.
The Department of Transport has said it stands ready to help the council, saying: "While Gateshead Council is responsible for the maintenance of the Gateshead Flyover, we are ready to work with the Council to support them on their next steps."
Keep up to date with our live blog with all the latest updates about the flyover closure here.
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