Princes St on track to re-open as tram workers target Leith

Published on Saturday 28 November 2009 10:02

TRAM workers are set to mount a full-scale assault on Leith Walk in the new year after claiming success on getting Princes Street reopened on time.

Tram bosses remain confident that contractors will meet today's 5pm deadline for having the street ready to hand back to the council for the Capital's winter festivities.

Buses are set to return to the street from 5:20am tomorrow as long as weeks of work to have the street ready are finished in time. City leader Jenny Dawe said she was "absolutely confident" the street would be ready, adding that a similar effort would get underway in Leith in the new year.

She said: "I was here two weeks ago and had you asked me then whether the street would be ready, I would have been more pessimistic.

"Everyone has pulled out all the stops and I'm absolutely confident it's going to be ready in time."

Councillor Dawe said public perceptions of the street had already begun to change, adding she had overheard a group of teenagers talking about how "awesome" it looked.

And she said contractors would now shift their attention to Leith Walk, which had originally been expected to be the first part of the route where tracks went down.

She said: "The folks in Leith are going to get some respite from the work over Christmas and then we're going to be doing the same thing (as Princes Street) in Leith Walk.

"They have had a difficult time in Leith, but it is an immensely complicated project and things have taken longer than we would have liked."

Susan Clark, the deputy director of the tram project, said that work on Princes Street had progressed well in the past week, despite being hampered by bad weather.

She said: "You can see the effort that's been put in, particularly over the last four weeks and absolutely over the last week."

But she denied that contractors working round the clock would have an effect on the final bill for the project.

Track-laying works are expected to start on the east end of Princes Street from January or February, although the road will not need to be closed again to traffic.

Work to erect power lines and overhead cables on Princes Street is expected to take place towards the end of the construction work.