The Centre Of Ripon Turns To Gridlock

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.