£20 million to connect West Leeds
Leeds has been awarded £20 million from the Levelling Up Fund. The investment will support improvements to Leeds Outer Ring Road between Horsforth and Pudsey.
The Connecting West Leeds project will make the road better for all users by:
- improving accessibility
- maximising efficiency
- increasing capacity
- ensuring safety
Road improvements for motorists
Motorists will benefit from the funded support for improvements to:
- increase capacity of the southbound exit lane on Horsforth roundabout
- the Fink Hill Junction
A better experience for all road users
To make the area better for all users there will be:
- an active travel route between Rodley roundabout and Dawson’s Corner
- a new bridge for pedestrians and cyclists to link Calverley and Farsley
- a new cycle route between Horsforth and Rodley
- further landscaping along the route
- traffic light improvements
Councillor Helen Hayden, Executive Member for Infrastructure and Climate, said:
The Connecting West Leeds proposals will help to improve links between communities especially for walking and cycling; and the safety improvements will help to reduce the number of collisions along this route, helping to meet our Leeds Safer Roads Vision Zero 2040 strategy which aims to eliminate deaths and serious injury on Leeds roads by 2040.
With the road improvements will also be a reduction to 50mph in some parts to keep all road users safe. A local resident said:
This is a fantastic idea! For adding a few seconds to the journey times, it will make the roads safer, and crucially help improve the air quality by reducing vehicle emissions.
Work on phase one of the project has already begun, with the main scheme construction having started in Autumn 2022.
Find out more about levelling up.
Images courtesy of Leeds City Council.