City centre bridge to be demolished to allow for replacement

Demolition of one of the key bridges in Leeds city centre is to begin next month to allow for a £31m rebuild.Built in the late 1960s the Regent Street Flyover, which carries traffic over the Inner Ring Road, has reached the end of its usable life.From Saturday 4 July and taking place over the following four weekends, the southern half of the existing flyover will be demolished and removed.This will see approximately 2,250 tonnes of steel and concrete removed.To allow for this work to be completed, there will be a series of weekend closures starting with preparatory work on Friday 26 June – Monday 29 June, 8pm – 5.30am, with the A64(M) and A61 re-opening outside of these hours with lane restrictions.Weekends Friday 4, 11, 18 and 25 July will have full closures which will last from 8pm on Friday evening until Monday morning at 5.30am.These improvements form part of the council’s Connecting Leeds transport ambitions for the city.The replacement of Regent Street Flyover along with complementary works to the Armley Gyratory, will ensure the Inner Ring Road will maintain traffic flow across the city and enable the pedestrian prioritisation of City Square.