Joint utility work at Hyde Road

Joint utility work at hyde road, manchester

Manchester City Council (MCC) began work on the Hyde Road Improvement Scheme in January 2020 to increase capacity on the A57 in Gorton. The sheme will see two new lanes added between Far Lane and Wall Way, where a disused railway bridge causes 300 metres of the road to decrease from four lanes to just two lanes. This key pinch point results in major traffic congestion on one of the busiest roads in and out of Manchester City Centre.

In addition to the two new lanes, the £5.9m scheme features an extra wide footpath and a new bridge to replace the current disused railway bridge which closed in 1988. This project will benefit the local community by significantly reducing traffic in both directions, improving air quality along Hyde Road and attracting local pedestrians, horse riders and cyclists to the Farrowfield cycling and walking loop trail where the new bridge has been installed.

As a result of this expansion, Manchester City Council approached Electricity North West in July 2020 to undertake Joint Utility Trenching along the A57 Hyde Road.

Our Diversions Team managed to schedule the work to commence within just four weeks of the initial order being raised to ensure the project remained on track for MCC's scheduled completion date of early 2021. With the help of our principal contractors O'Connor Utilities, we successfully installed 1000m of HV and LV cable across four road crossings of a main arterial route in Manchester City Centre. Our teams completed the work which involved weekend and overnight working to minimise disruption to traffic and pedestrians.

The use of a Joint Utility Trenching (JUT) solution realised a significant reduction in the programme timescales of utility diversions associated with the Hyde Road project.

Although there were some reductions in the overall cost of the project for Manchester City Council, using one contractor on site for excavation demonstrated to local businesses, residents and other stakeholders that consideration had been taken by the council over the impact that a major project can have on their businesses and the inconvenience that these works can cause to the general public and local traffic.

A further benefit for Electricity North West was that the JUT allowed us to control the amount of space between our cables and other utility pipes and ducts, thus making future maintenance and connections easier for all utility companies.