ERI submits plans for traffic flow redesign

details of a proposed re- design of public transport at the Royal Infirmary have been submitted to city planners.

The planned relocation of the Sick Kids hospital to Little France, where it will be directly linked with the ERI, means that Little France Crescent will have to be closed to through traffic.

Before that happens, the existing loop road to the north and east of the ERI will be upgraded and widened. The hospital’s bus hub will be re- located from the west side of the ERI to the north east of the eastern main entrance. It will include eight bus stances within laybys, as part of a two-way, bus-only link.

Two bus stops will also be provided in laybys next to the Edinburgh University Medical School and Queen’s Medical Research Institute, with a further two stops on Little France Crescent. As the Evening News reported yesterday, there are fears of further delays to the construction of the new Sick Kids because a land-swap deal has yet to be signed.

The new hospital was originally due to open later this year, but the work cannot go out to tender until Consort, the PFI firm which runs the ERI, has signed an agreement to hand over the hospital’s main car park, on which the new Sick Kids will then be built.