Urgent repairs are being carried out on a key road used to re-route buses during work at Preston Bus Station.

Investigations began in early March when Lancashire County Council was forced to close the road.

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It had been used as a diversion route while work took place in Lord Street for the next phase of the Fishergate-style look coming to Lancaster Road and surrounding roads.

Due the volume of the traffic a damaged redundant water main has ‘exacerbated the failure of the road’ according to a report to the county council.

Read more: How the Lancaster Road roadworks are progressing

Leader of the county council Geoff Driver has approved urgent repair work costing £85,000 to bring the road back into use.

A report to him outlined the risk of not completing the works could lead to a delay in opening the new coach station at the southern end of Preston Bus Station. It is due to open at the end of May this year.

Council officers stated: “An investigation has identified that a damaged redundant water main was creating a very wet area which exacerbated the failure of the road.

“This has been remedied and the areas back filled. In order to address the road construction it is proposed that the street is excavated down to the concrete foundation which supported the existing
cobbled construction and replace this with bituminous material to a depth of approximately 200mm.

“Repairs will also be required to the concrete slab. The existing setts cannot be overlaid as a satisfactory flexible construction would not be able to be achieved as the levels are governed by the existing kerb height. The estimated cost of this work is £85,000. The closure of Old Vicarage has implications for the redevelopment at Preston’s bus station.

“Works are needed at the corner of Tithebarn Street and Lord Street in order to facilitate the opening of the new coach station at the end of May 2018. These works cannot be completed while Old Vicarage remains closed as this is the alternative routing for the buses. Furthermore, once the bus station project is complete Old Vicarage will take in excess of 1500 buses per day which will require a standard of construction that can withstand this loading of traffic.”

Read more: Broughton roadworks put back until the summer

Work is due to begin imminently on the road.

The council stated another option to patch the road – costing £10,000 – was dismissed as it would not be able to handle the future level of buses on diversion and would break up again.

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