SecretLeeds - History, culture and architecture in Leeds

By chance I have just come across an online report dated September 3 2011 headed '£25m repair crisis over Leeds ring road' in the Yorkshire Post website. This is the link to the online report:- http://www.yorkshirepost.co.uk/news/at- ... _3740493In the report it starts "A KEY route through a Yorkshire city could be shut down unless urgent repairs are carried out, a cash-strapped council has warned. Tunnels and bridges serving the Leeds inner ring road are deteriorating at an alarming rate, despite repair work by the city council. The authority now needs about £25m to keep the traffic moving and has warned that one structure, the Lovell Park Road Bridge over the A64, could have a lifespan of just 12 months without repairs".Any prolonged closure of the Inner Ring Road will cause severe traffic problems.

Unbelievable - it seems only yesterday that, along with hundreds of others, I walked through the tunnel (from Park Lane) that Saturday afternoon when the Public were allowed to do so just before it was opened to traffic. I know how vital the road is to the City, but I still miss all the old streets and buildings and "atmosphere" which were sacrificed for it.    Similarly, as a former resident of Ilkley, that Town has never looked "right" to me since the railway bridge over Brook Street was removed.

From the report:'the Lovell Park Road Bridge over the A64, could have a lifespan of just 12 months without repairs'.Surely this is the bridge which caused Lovell Park Road, and at time the Inner Ring Road, being closed for a considerable period whilst substantial repairs were carried out?The consequences of a closure would be dire - such has been the desire to preclude traffic from other East-West routes, most have been made impassable for such a purpose and are unavailable even as a short term contingency such as closures of the Rring Rroad after accidents. E ven onr lane closure causes mayhem, despite much traffic already circumnavigating the road via the newer link roads and motorway network.    

chameleon wrote: From the report:'the Lovell Park Road Bridge over the A64, could have a lifespan of just 12 months without repairs'.Surely this is the bridge which caused Lovell Park Road, and at time the Inner Ring Road, being closed for a considerable period whilst substantial repairs were carried out?The consequences of a closure would be dire - such has been the desire to preclude traffic from other East-West routes, most have been made impassable for such a purpose and are unavailable even as a short term contingency such as closures of the Rring Rroad after accidents. E ven onr lane closure causes mayhem, despite much traffic already circumnavigating the road via the newer link roads and motorway network.     I remember the carry on in the Evening Post myself, the traders at the Merrion were far from happy.In which case, then what is all this about here?http://www.leeds.gov.uk/Transport_and_s ... aspxLovell Park Road Bridge (L220) is a single span concrete bridge that carries Lovell Park Road/Wade Lane over the A64(M) Leeds Inner Ring Road to the north east of the city centre.Work to strengthen the bridge started on 6 September 2010 and was expected to last for about 26 weeks.The external beams on each side of the bridge were to be replaced with new ones, the bridge deck to be waterproofed and the existing road resurfaced.The bridge was originally built in 1968. Recent inspections had identified a number of serious defects to the outermost beams of the bridge deck. Although these defects did not pose any immediate danger, it was decided it was important these beams were replaced without delay in the interests of the long term integrity of the bridge.The two edge beams were planned to be removed on Sunday 24th October 2010. Preparatory work to enable the beams to be lifted out revealed cracking to both the beams and the beams next to them. Although an extensive inspection and survey of the bridge had been carried out before the start of the works, these cracks could not be seen as they were concealed on the inner faces of the beams.Since then a detailed inspection of all previously hidden areas has been undertaken to determine the extent and severity of all cracking. An assessment to determine the capacity of the bridge has shown that the load carrying capacity of the bridge is unaffected. The identified cracks have now been repaired, however due to lack of funding, the removal of the two edge beams has been postponed until funds become available.Extensive consultation has been carried out and agreement has been reached that the safest option is to implement a one way outbound only traffic system over the bridge in the direction of Wade Lane to Lovell Park Road.Work to make the bridge beams safe and implement the revised highway alignment is now complete. The bridge is now open to one-way traffic from 1st July 2011.    

Shall we call today's article a case of selective information reporting?Demonstrably much has and is going on with the Ring Road, in addition to the Lovell Park bridge, the short section tunnel introduing traffic from Kirkstal Road onto the Ring Road at Westgate underwent ectensive work to repair and waterproof the structure last year, the entire extent of the parapet walls and barriers have/ are being remade....When I first looked at the link Leodian posted, my reaction was that he had found a story from their archive!

From what I can make out, or how it reads to me is the Inner Ring Road is in dire need of work doing, and the Council are doing, and spending as much as they can, as quickly as they can (budget and finance wise) to keep it open, but clearly it needs vast amounts spending.This seems to really be remedial work to keep traffic flowing as best they can, but a time will come when it will have to be classed as unsafe.

Why is the council responsible for repair and maintenance of a motorway. I thought that was the Highways Agency's job.?

Cardiarms wrote: Why is the council responsible for repair and maintenance of a motorway. I thought that was the Highways Agency's job.? Highways Agency only have responsibility for Trunk Roads Cardi - Local Councils manage all others. That it is classed as Motorway is irrelevant.

Sadly this looks like a consequence of the construction methods used. Structure made from materials such as concrete and steel have a finite service life and need regular and ongoing maintenance.If you've ever watched any of the documentaries about what would happen in the future if humans vanished would know that within 10 years they would be crumbling and failing. Yet "old" structures made from materials such as quarried stone would survive much longer - near indefinitely in some instances - there is quite a bit about it on the 'net if you choose to search for it. Look how long the remains of Kirkstall Abbey has stood, exposed to the elements for many centuries with virtually no maintainable.Concrete structures do have the advantage that they are massively cheaper to build in the first place (in comparison), the future maintenance costs are off-set over many years of service and almost inevitably, those costs end up being a problem for someone else.The IRR is over 40 years old and has been exposed to a wealth of pollutants since day one, many of which are known for their impact on the very materials used to construct it - stuff we're aware of now but weren't necessarily aware of when it was built.There are many examples of concrete and steel structures that haven't even lasted that long, so in one respect it's not doing too badly.As for closing it for any length of time, well that simply doesn't bear thinking about and cannot really be a serious consideration.As for the Lovell Park bridge - being harsh for a moment it only ever really carried local traffic and if it had to be removed forever it wouldn't be a massive issue for 99% of the population of Leeds - there are alternative routes available nearby. If the council really think the weight using it needs to be limited have they installed a weight restriction? Or could they not have installed traffic lights limiting passing traffic to one direction at a time..?One final thought - how will this announcement impact on the construction of the arena, which is currently being built up right against one of those massive concrete retaining walls that it is suggested is in need of serious remedial work? Or the LGI, parts of which are built on top of a tunnel?

raveydavey wrote: Sadly this looks like a consequence of the construction methods used. Structure made from materials such as concrete and steel have a finite service life and need regular and ongoing maintenance.If you've ever watched any of the documentaries about what would happen in the future if humans vanished would know that within 10 years they would be crumbling and failing. Yet "old" structures made from materials such as quarried stone would survive much longer - near indefinitely in some instances - there is quite a bit about it on the 'net if you choose to search for it. Look how long the remains of Kirkstall Abbey has stood, exposed to the elements for many centuries with virtually no maintainable.Concrete structures do have the advantage that they are massively cheaper to build in the first place (in comparison), the future maintenance costs are off-set over many years of service and almost inevitably, those costs end up being a problem for someone else.The IRR is over 40 years old and has been exposed to a wealth of pollutants since day one, many of which are known for their impact on the very materials used to construct it - stuff we're aware of now but weren't necessarily aware of when it was built.There are many examples of concrete and steel structures that haven't even lasted that long, so in one respect it's not doing too badly.As for closing it for any length of time, well that simply doesn't bear thinking about and cannot really be a serious consideration.As for the Lovell Park bridge - being harsh for a moment it only ever really carried local traffic and if it had to be removed forever it wouldn't be a massive issue for 99% of the population of Leeds - there are alternative routes available nearby. If the council really think the weight using it needs to be limited have they installed a weight restriction? Or could they not have installed traffic lights limiting passing traffic to one direction at a time..?One final thought - how will this announcement impact on the construction of the arena, which is currently being built up right against one of those massive concrete retaining walls that it is suggested is in need of serious remedial work? Or the LGI, parts of which are built on top of a tunnel? It is difficult to say what is happening Davy because there is too little information given and much more would become very technical.SR conrete is capable of giving very long lifespans - provided it is properly maintained and that is likely to be where the problems stem from. The old Code of Practice used to indicate that what may be considered to be little more than hairline cracks (fractions of a milimetre) were sufficient to allow enough moisture entry to be detrimental to the steel. The resultant spaling rust would has sufficient force to shear of the concrete cover - and then failure is very much on the cards.On the brighter side, remedies are available, at a cost