Nottingham City Council has outlined the steps it is taking to try and keep Nottingham moving with the Highways England emergency works on the A52 Clifton Bridge continuing to cause major traffic problems across the city.

The council’s traffic team is in constant contact with Highways England about the progress of the work on Clifton Bridge – the busiest road in the city – and any measures that can be put in place to improve access. Highway England has confirmed it will reopen one of the lanes on the A52 eastbound this evening (Tuesday 11th February).

Other measures being taken include:

  • Suspending all non-essential roadworks across the city 
  • Working with Nottinghamshire Police on the ground to keep traffic flowing at key junctions, particularly trams and buses   
  • Live monitoring of the roads via a network of traffic cameras to manage traffic flow and takes action at hotspots such as changing traffic signal phasing.
  • Encouraging people to think about using public transport including park & ride for journeys where they can 

Nottingham Forest’s match against Charlton Athletic at the City Ground means the roads are likely to be particularly busy tonight. The council is liaising with the club to ensure fans going to the match are updated with the latest travel advice. Highways England will re-open one eastbound carriageway on the A52 Clifton Bridge around 9.30pm to coincide with the match finishing to help those heading home from the City Ground.

The road along the Victoria Embankment, normally closed to through traffic on match days, will be kept open tonight to ease traffic congestion. Because of this, reduced parking will be available on the Embankment for the match so fans are being encouraged to use park & ride sites and public transport to travel to the match wherever possible.  

Steps are also being taken to ensure buses and trams can keep moving during rush hour tonight on the key public transport routes south of Nottingham railway station. With the support of Nottinghamshire Police, a number of temporary road closures will come into force later today to improve public transport links including at Meadows Way West junction with Queens Drive, Sheriffs Way junction with Meadows Way and Crocus Street junction with Sheriffs Way. The measures will be kept under review.

Councillor Adele Williams, Portfolio Holder for Transport, said: “The traffic has been an absolute nightmare over the last few days and it’s been hugely frustrating for everyone who’s been caught up in it.

“People have been really understanding about the work needing to happen now for urgent safety reasons. Highways England have assured us that everything possible is being done to complete it as quickly as possible.

“We’ll continue to take whatever practicable steps we can to try to ease the situation until the work is completed.”  

Longer-term, calls for another bridge over the River Trent are not in the City Council’s gift and may not resolve the issue. The current situation with Clifton Bridge is very unusual and while it shows how vulnerable Nottingham’s road network is to becoming gridlocked, building our way out of it with more roads is not necessarily the answer.

The City Council’s focus is on providing viable alternatives to using cars to get into the city. For example, we are currently awaiting a Government announcement on a bid for funding which among other things will expand our Park and Ride facilities, encouraging more people to leave their cars outside the city and take public transport in – thereby reducing the amount of traffic on our roads.

The only extra bridge over the river the council has in its thinking at the moment is a cycle and pedestrian bridge between Colwick and Lady Bay.

More information on travel during the A52 works, including Park & Ride sites and public transport options, is available at https://www.transportnottingham.com/roadworks/clifton-bridge/