By Harry Ward
Highway improvements have been completed between Horsforth and Pudsey as part of a £23m scheme to upgrade the Leeds outer ring road.
The Connecting West Leeds project has delivered new footpaths and cycleways, junction upgrades and a reduced 50mph speed limit on the A6120 between Horsforth roundabout and Dawsons Corner.
Leeds City Council said the changes were designed to make the route safer, cut congestion and encourage more people to walk or cycle.
The improvements, which took about a year, include upgraded cycle and walking routes, a longer merge lane at Horsforth roundabout to ease traffic, and restrictions on right turns out of Calverley Bridge and Calverley Lane.
Landscaping has been added along the route and speed cameras will enforce the new 50mph limit between Horsforth and the Stanningley bypass.
Work will begin early next year on the final part of the project – an accessible footbridge over the ring road near Calverley Lane. The bridge, due to take about 12 months to complete, is intended to link the communities of Calverley and Farsley.
The £23m programme has been supported by £20m from the government’s Levelling Up Fund, with the remainder from local sources.
Councillor Jonathan Pryor, deputy leader of Leeds City Council and executive member for economy, transport and sustainable development, said:
“I hope more people will use the segregated cycle paths, that make the route much safer and more accessible for active travel.
“The new accessible footbridge over the A6120 Ring Road Farsley near Calverley Lane, when constructed next year, will provide vital new connections between Calverley and Farsley.
“Although it’s great to see yet another project complete, we are conscious that there’s still a lot of other work taking place around the city. We are working hard to deliver these as swiftly as possible, while minimising disruption wherever we can.”
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Very excited about this! The direct route between Horsforth and Farsley was always horrible to try to reach by bike, but now I can use it directly it’ll save me loads of time when crossing over each side.
I use this road daily at various times of the day and I don’t recall seeing more than 3 people on the cycle lane!
That’s exactly why we need the bike lane upgrade – the old one was quite scary to cycle on, which is really off-putting to a lot of people. Now that it’s hopefully a lot safer, you’ll see more people cycling. Compare it to the canal where you’ll see loads of people on bikes!
23 MILLON ??????
This scheme of works has caused such a huge amount of inconvenience to road users and total frustration at the lack of action as everyday that I drove past during the YEAR that it took. About 10 workers with 8 of them smoking and on their phone while one or two did manual work. We are a disgrace in this country the Germans or Japanese would have worked through the night and had it finished in weeks.
Look at the lemmings shoved out into the wild showing off Leeds city cycles.
No real cyclists insite
What a total waste of money
The cyclists use the canal because it’s the quickest route into the city without traffic lights, roundabouts
The roundabouts still get congestion because they are reduced lanes as you come off them
So doesn’t stop it but causes it
These labour councillors like making decisions which they decide despite objections.
It’s their view that counts not the people of leeds
We say we don’t want this they say tough WE DO
SO 99 councillors beat any number of objections
Dawson corner not for the benefit of Leeds people
more for Bradford people .
These Highways bunch like to meddle with the roads around the city but cannot repair them
What a bunch of jobsworths
I have driven this route hundreds of times never seen a cyclist . I have walked it once loads of grass verge never felt threatened by the road traffic . The likeliest occurrence now will be getting run over by an illegal electric scooter doing 40 MPH on the footpath.
What a complete waste of money.
As has been said, there are no more than a handful of cyclists using this!!! Pedestrians don’t want to walk next to that fume-ridden road either!
Money would have been better spent making 2 lanes for each side of the road for cars, and there was enough space for a cycle/pedestrian lane as well!
“Encourage more people to walk and cycle”. What, next to congested traffic caused by the MASSIVE cycle lane?
You absolute moronic, clueless idiots…
It’s great to see investment in travel infrastructure, excellent long term vision and planning from LCC.
With a growing population and increasing number of cars on the road we need this infrastructure putting in place.