Plans for new relief road to Port of Liverpool shelved

Jun 15 2009 By David Bartlett

Tony Robertson 320x160

PLANS for a crucial new road to the Port of Liverpool to relieve congestion have been shelved over environmental concerns.

The new road was planned to go through the Rimrose Valley – parkland between Waterloo and Litherland – to help reduce traffic along congested Dunnings Bridge Road.

Currently around 10% of traffic along the route to Switch Island, where the road meets the M57 and M58 motorways, is port-related.

Sefton council leader Tony Robertson said the road, which would have cost up to £200m, was now "on ice" and a study would soon start to find a solution.

In December last year the Daily Post revealed how costs soared on the scheme from £45m to between £131m and £200m because of changes in the "methodology" of estimating the costs.

Traffic studies found an increase in freight to and from the docks year-on-year is expected to push the existing route to its full capacity by 2010.

They warned of massive congestion unless drastic measures are taken.

Traffic is also anticipated to increase once a "post-Panamax" dock is built at Seaforth to berth larger container ships.

In 2003 councillors agreed on a proposal to build a road through Rimrose Valley.

Cllr Robertson said: "The original study for the road was done by the Highways Agency five or six years ago.

"Since then we have all become more environmentally aware and the government has changed environmental standards for projects.

"We thought it was sensible to re-evaluate again and see what the options are."