Cardownie calls for nighttime work to prevent tram chaos

DEPUTY council leader Steve Cardownie today demanded that tram works take place overnight in a bid to avoid further city centre traffic chaos.

There was severe disruption yet again yesterday, with delays of up to 50 minutes for bus passengers and motorists in the Leith Walk area.

Work to paint a yellow box junction at the London Road roundabout had been due to take place on Sunday, but was delayed because of bad weather.

However, despite several downpours during Monday, it was decided to paint the yellow lines shortly after midday yesterday. By 12.45pm, this had caused delays of between 40 and 45 minutes, with queues of traffic snaking all the way down Leith Walk and on to Great Junction Street, and also towards St Andrew Square and along London Road.

Delays continued throughout the afternoon on buses, which were unable to recover from the knock-on effect.

Cllr Cardownie, the SNP leader in the council's ruling coalition, said he planned to raise the issue with TIE, the firm behind the tram line.

He said: "This is shambolic. There is a complete lack of common sense. There's a lot of traffic on that roundabout, which is one of the busiest junctions in the city.

"You can't start mucking about with it on the first day of a business week. It's illogical.

"There's no attempt to make sure things pass off smoothly – it's like someone actually wants to wreck the city's transport network."

Cllr Cardownie said roadworks were often carried out at nighttime on the continent.

"You may have to pay workers a bit more, but the impact on traffic is negligible," he said. "I would rather that was the case.

TIE is forced to follow a strict code of construction practice, which is currently designed to avoid late-night noise for residents. The document would have to be redrawn in order that regular nighttime work could be carried out.

Normal working hours are 7am-7pm Monday to Friday, and 8am-1pm on Saturday. However, the council can grant permission for work to be carried out at weekends and in the evenings if required, with Sunday working hours set at 10am-6pm.

A TIE spokesman said: "The control of working hours is important for residents and the likes of hotels and B&Bs, and these are clearly stipulated in the code.

"In planning its work, TIE balances these impacts against the demanding construction programme and its budget."

Yesterday's works were temporarily suspended at 1.10pm, and traffic started to clear by around 1.45pm.

According to Lothian Buses, workers were back at 1.50pm, immediately causing delays of between ten and 15 minutes.

A spokesman said: "They finished at 2.10pm. At 3pm, buses were running up to 50 minutes late because they hadn't recovered."

The TIE spokesman added: "Lining work that was being carried out at the top of Leith Walk was halted early in the afternoon to allow a small build up of traffic to clear.

"The work, which will form part of the traffic management plan in that area, was completed once the traffic had cleared."