EDINBURGH has been warned to brace itself for the biggest tram roadworks disruption yet as four months of traffic restrictions start today around Haymarket.
Drivers heading for the city centre from the west will be diverted north of the major junction while underground pipes and cables are moved.
Congestion in the area is likely to be intensified by the Edinburgh Festival and schools restarting next w
eek.
The traffic shake-up will provide a further headache for drivers who have already had to switch routes since the closure of Shandwick Place to cars in March.
However, the tram developers insist the work cannot be postponed because it could delay tram line construction, which is due to follow in February.
Traders yesterday called for the work to be completed in time for the key pre-Christmas period.
Road closures come into force today in advance of roadworks starting on Monday, which are due to last until Christmas.
TIE, the city council firm leading the £500 million tram project, said the complicated north-south and east-west junction was the busiest on the tram route and had the highest density of pipes and cables to be moved.
The work is necessary so they can be accessed in future without disrupting trams, which are due to run between Edinburgh airport and Newhaven by mid-2011.
Work at Haymarket will also involve building a viaduct over the site of the former Caledonian Ale House, beside the Haymarket station, to take trams from street level to beside the railway tracks.
In the first of multi-stage road restrictions, eastbound traffic on Haymarket Terrace will be diverted via Magdala Crescent, Eglinton Crescent and Palmerston Place. Eastbound buses will travel via Rosebery Crescent, Landsdowne Crescent and Grosvenor Street.
Willie Gallagher, the TIE chairman, said September was one of Edinburgh's quietest months, but the Haymarket work could not be put off till then. He said: "We want to get on and make sure we are finished in time for the start of the infrastructure work early next year."
Lothian Buses, which has blamed previous tram roadworks for forcing service cuts, hoped it would not suffer further. Bill Campbell, its operations director, said: "Extensive planning has gone into the bus route diversions, which are designed to result in as little or no disruption for bus passengers."
Graham Russell, the Edinburgh chairman of the Federation of Small Businesses, said: "The job must be finished by the end of November, in time for the peak pre-Christmas spending weekend. I hope businesses do not suffer 1 per cent of what those in Leith Walk suffered during tram works, but I'm sure they will."
The full article contains 446 words and appears in The Scotsman newspaper.
