Road works will start on Castle Street on the evening of Sunday September 5th, with the aim to re-open the road to general traffic by the end of October.
While these works take place throughout the night, Castle Street will remain open to taxis and buses to travel one-way, from Cowbridge Road and Westgate Street onto North Road. These works will only take place between 8pm and 6am so during the day Castle Street will remain open to buses and taxis in both directions.
The inbound route travelling from Boulevard de Nantes, south onto North Road, towards Castle Street, will be closed to all traffic, with the exception of the emergency services, where access will be maintained in both directions. While the works take place, our on-site contractor will manage all deliveries to shops and businesses.
Following a public consultation on the future of the thoroughfare, Cardiff Council’s Cabinet took a decision in June this year to temporarily reopen the street to trafficwhile more data is collected on post-pandemic traffic flows and air pollution levels in the city centre.
However, the temporary scheme will still significantly reduce the amount of general traffic able to use Castle Street to well below pre-covid levels, reducing available lanes from three to two.
This scheme was initially approved by Welsh Government’s independent expert panel and signed off by Ministers as part of a legally-binding Clean Air Plan for the city centre which was approved in December 2019 before the pandemic struck.
The temporary scheme that will be installed, includes:
- Two lanes will be re-opened to general traffic
- The west-bound bus lane will remain in place
- The pop-up, two-way cycleway will remain in place.
- The existing taxi rank on Castle Street will be removed, allowing taxis to use the loading bays to pick up customers outside the delivery times of 6am to 10am
- A new trial rainbow crossing will be installed, which will replace the existing pedestrian crossing outside the Castle gates.
To facilitate the scheme, the extended pavement installed on Castle Street will be removed, and a variety of other works are required, including re-setting the telematics systems; resurfacing, relining the road and installing the correct signage before the Castle Street can re-open to private cars.
This new road layout will ensure that the council meets its legally-binding requirement to lower pollution on Castle Street to acceptable limits in the shortest time possible and represents the Council’s original plan for the road as set out in the Clean Air Plan produced by Cardiff Council and subsequently approved by Welsh Government in 2019.