News

The Centre Of Ripon Turns To Gridlock

Monday 28 April

It was in dark of Sunday night that Coltsgate Hill in Ripon closed, to allow for the next phase of the West of the Marketplace development to start, and the diversion routes were set in place. We awoke to rush hour chaos as the gridlock set in.

In the past we have seen the roads become busy due to a set of roadworks, or in recent times have suffered the disruption caused by Blossomgate being a works access... but the whole Market Square and surrounding roads this morning was gridlocked with the roads leading into Ripon backing up.

The trouble areas were the junction of Westgate (now heading into the Market Square) and High Skellgate where the 2 roads were merging together. Then for all the traffic that is needing to then exit the Market Square Kirkgate and the junction of Duck Hill with Water Skellgate was gridlocked as none of the traffic on Water Skellgate could move.

It was much easier on foot to see the extent of the problem that was occurring. The normal hectic Church Lane, Trinity Lane and Blossomgate were deserted, but the closer you got to Westgate the gridlock was apparent. At 9am Westgate was full, the Market Square was stationary and there was a solid 2 lanes of traffic filling Queen Street in front of Sainsburys. All stuck, nothing moving. Kirkgate, Duck Hill and Water Skellgate solid, linking into High Skellgate. Even further afield the traffic backed up on Boroughbridge Road up to the Wolseley Center, almost encroaching on the bypass.

At the moment it would be wise to try to leave your cars at home and walk if you can .. or keep your fingers crossed that they get things sorted to keep the traffic flowing. They are other measures that weren’t implemented today, such as making Firby Lane access only, plus they will be opening up Borrage Lane as a one way road.

The current road plans and diversion routes can be found here. We will be updating the information is different routes are announced.

Comments

1. (Monday 28 April) It was utter madness this morning. Even when I saw the road plans originally a few weeks ago I had huge concerns. I was stuck in the traffic for over 30 minutes today, for a journey that normally takes me 2-3 minutes. Needless to say I was late. Lets just hope it's better tomorrow

2. (Monday 28 April) It makes you wonder how the closure of a piece of road less than 50 metres long can cause such a problem. They should make Firby Lane One way going up and change the direction here. Plus i don't understand how Allhallowgate and the stretch of road around the Cathedral on Marygate will be able to handle all of the car park traffic .. it's narrow and bad enough already.

3. (Monday 28 April) Using the bypass was a nightmare due to traffic built up on boroughbridge road.. what a mess !!

4. (Tuesday 29 April) The local council have known this was going to happen for over a year yet have done little to put an alternative into place - future plans include opening up Borrage Lane as a one way road - this should have been done on Sunday night at the latest. Lights should be used at the Skellgate/Westgate Junction to provide some traffic movement at least. We will have 9 months of gridlock whilst work is carried out on a 75yd stretch of road until this is sorted.

5. (Tuesday 29 April) Day 2 of the road closures, and the normal morning traffic serge was no where to be seen around the streets of Westgate, High Skellgate, Duck Hill, and the Market Square ... were was all the traffic. There was tumbleweed rolling past the town hall. Turns out all the traffic was jammed up on the bypass and at the junction of Allhallowgate, Stonebridgegate and St Mary Gate

6. (Tuesday 29 April) Lets hope they will sort out the diversion routes ... it looks like the centre of town is in a warzone ... with all the barrocades and railings. Is this going to be there all through the year, or will they put something better in it's place. It will certainly have a knock on effect to what the tourists think of the city.