All Union Street to be one-way

ONE-way traffic beckons for the whole of Union Street following the announcement of complicated new works by Metrolink bosses

Vehicles will be able to travel only westbound down the busy Oldham town-centre road from next Tuesday — possibly until mid-February.

The project will be split into pre and post-Christmas stages, as a new system of maintenance shafts and chambers needs to be constructed to provide access to the United Utilities wastewater pipes running beneath the new tram route.

Union Street is currently one-way from Oldham Mumps to Waterloo Street — and once works start, it will extend to King Street.

Transport for Greater Manchester chiefs have not ruled out the possibility of sections of Union Street closing in both directions, as work takes place after the festive period.

Alan Cayton, section manager, said workmen would not know what they were up against until they were in the ground to deal with the worn-out pre-war infrastructure.

“You never know what’s in the ground until you start digging. As work is progressing early on, it will be a steep learning process and it will feed into the work on the other locations,” he said.

Sections of Union Street close to Chaucer Street, Brunswick Street, Peter Street and around Sainsburys will be targeted first, with work completed in around five weeks.

A section of Union Street near Southgate Street is already closed in both directions. During water mains work last Sunday, workmen discovered an unknown culvert.

Mr Cayton said: “Unfortunately when the work was well under way we came across a culvert which didn’t show up on any records. We had to divert the pipe round the culvert and it wasn’t possible to keep traffic flowing.”

Councillor Dave Hibbert, cabinet member for transport and regeneration, is urging locals to have a “bit of patience” while the work takes place.

For more information on Metrolink work visit www.oldham.gov.uk/metrolink_alerts, email future.metrolink@tfgm.com or call 0161-244 1555.