Detailed plans have been revealed for how Lune Street is going to be made two-way.

Work has begun on changing the road from being one-way in an attempt to ease a bottleneck in Preston city centre.

Motorists are regularly trapped in the St George’s Shopping Centre car park but Lancashire County Council wants to add a new route out of the city.

It’s part of the county council switching back on the controversial Fishergate bus lane cameras in November.

Roadworks in Lune Street will see the road from the turn out of the St George’s car park made two-way and a new junction into Ringway.

What’s being dubbed the Lune Street link road will go along the front of the 1842 Bar and Restaurant, past the statues and into Ringway through what is currently a flower bed.

Two yellow keep clear boxes will be put into the Fleet Street turn into Lune Street and also into Ringway where the new turn will come out from the link road.

Cabinet member for highways and transport county councillor Keith Iddon said: “These changes are intended to reduce traffic congestion in Preston city centre, particularly as we will soon reintroduce enforcement of the bus lanes on Fishergate in the very busy run up to Christmas.

“The introduction of the bus lanes on Fishergate particularly affected shoppers using the St Georges Centre car park and resulted in more traffic through the Avenham area, and these changes to Lune Street are intended to relieve congestion by creating access to alternative routes out of the city centre via Ring Way.

“We are confident that these changes to Lune Street will help, but it is not possible to predict their full impact with any certainty. We are therefore using an experimental traffic regulation order to introduce them, which allows us to easily change the design again if we need to. We’re also using low cost methods of construction to create the new link to Ring Way, which means we can do it quickly and make further changes if necessary while keeping costs down.

“Our intention has always been to improve the quality of Lune Street so that it marries with the Fishergate Scheme, and if these changes are effective we will look to make them permanent, with an appropriate design using high quality materials.

“The Fishergate scheme has really transformed the city centre, and we hope these changes to manage traffic will be another positive step towards making Preston a better place to visit, shop, and do business.”

Read more: New speed limit planned for Broughton now bypass is open

Work began on Monday (16 October) and is expected to be complete by Monday 30 October.

Access to the car park for Preston Mobility Centre is going to be cut off for five days while the work is ongoing.

A signed diversion via Friargate will be in place during the closure.

Lune Street itself remains open throughout the work.

The county council says the Lune Street change is ‘experimental’ with a report due to be presented to the county council’s cabinet during summer 2018 on the impact it has.

Read more: Three new roads approved to the west of Preston

Fishergate’s bus lane is set to see the cameras and enforcement reintroduced on Monday 6 November. The bus lane operates from 11am to 6pm seven-days-a-week and caught thousands of motorists when it was introduced last year.

The county council was taken to appeal by six drivers who overturned the fine, as an independent inspector said the signage for the lane was inadequate – rendering it unenforceable.

What do you think about the Lune Street changes? Will it work to ease congestion? Let us know in the comments below