Pet Project
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On this page, as part of the Futures section, the progress of the East Leeds Link Road project will be tracked, with updates every couple of months.
This scheme has a regular page too under the "New Road Schemes" section - it's the A63 East Leeds Link Road.
Naturally, as soon as I started this page, the scheme was put on hold for about four years. Work finally started in late 2006.
Update: December 2006
Between Christmas and New Year, work has been ongoing for nearly three months and there's lots of evidence on the ground.
Four years on from the previous photos, the roundabout is still there untouched, but now the "Leeds A63" exit has been closed off, meaning the only remaining ways on and off the junction are the access road from Newsam Green and the waterworks dead-end.
Because the road has been unused for so long, the sliproads to the M1 and this left-turn lane will be rebuilt - so the original surface, now removed, was awaiting traffic for eight years and never got used at all! The original layout here with the left-turn lane joining one lane from the roundabout will also be changed, with two lanes off the roundabout meeting the left-turn lane at traffic lights. The whole roundabout will be signalised.
Further along the route towards Leeds, this is the rather ominous road closure - a mile of Pontefract Lane, the narrow lane that will be upgraded, was closed in October 2006 for two years.
Here is that road closure - already you can see the land clearance to the right.
The reason the closure happens here is that, up to this point, Pontefract Lane is a busy access route for industrial premises and the commercial markets. All the way along the open section, side-roads leading away have been refurbished with new surfaces and lighting which stops abruptly a short way before Pontefract Lane itself - in anticipation of everything nearby being swept away for the new dual carriageway.
Looking the other way, towards Leeds, the empty space to the right is obviously the other carriageway.
Update: September 2002
At this stage, the road has yet to be started. I went to have a look at its half-built starting point at M1 J45.
If you've ever used the M1 extension at Leeds and passed these signs, and wondered why there was a full junction completely shut off, then this is why. The East Leeds Link will begin here, but because it doesn't yet exist there's just a little local road passing through. The plates on the sign will presumably be removed for it to read "Leeds A63".
Proof that the A63 will be realigned to multiplex with the M1 to here - the sign at the roundabout already claims this is the A63! Not true at all, since for now it still goes through Halton to end on the A64 at Osmondthorpe.
I didn't expect to find this - a left-turn lane from the M1 northbound off slip leads to this stump (left). Presumably it will join with the exit from the roundabout (right) to form a two-lane carriageway. As you can see, the interchange is fully lit, despite there being almost nothing passing through as yet (especially on that left-turn lane, where there isn't anything at all!).
A long and winding entry sliproad onto the M1 northbound. It's presently blocked off with large concrete barriers. The VMS (variable message signs) are all present and correct, though they've been covered with bin bags.
In the opposite direction, the road is signed for Newsam Green - a rather vague area with a landfill and an open-cast mine. Further down the road there seemed to be construction work and through the fence a brand new road surface with brand new crash barriers was visible - it wasn't clear if this was a new road or just part of the open-cast mine. If it is new road, it seems the A63 will continue away from the M1 rather than multiplexing with it.
