Traffic chaos is set to hit Dundee city centre again on Tuesday with the start of a contract to remove and replace part of the Tay Road Bridge exit ramps.
After a welcome period of several months when the city has been relatively free of disruption, drivers are now likely to be faced with more than a year of traffic turmoil.
Dundee City Council and the Tay Road Bridge joint board have said everything possible will be done to minimise disruption but the nature of the contract, its duration and the fact it will have an impact on the city’s inner ring road all suggest drivers’ patience will be tested to the limits again.
Realignment of the ramps is a key element of the central waterfront project.
However, the bad news for motorists is that major disruption is likely for the next 18 months the duration of the ramps contract and it will be four-and-a-half years before things are completely back to normal.
The demolition part of the £6 million project kicks off with the westbound exit ramp, the route that takes Dundee-bound traffic from the bridge left towards the railway station, in July.
This ramp will be replaced with a more compact version and realigned to tie in initially with South Marketgait and eventually with the planned new southern boulevard which will form part of the central waterfront’s new road layout.
Work starting this week will prepare the eastbound exit ramp to handle all northbound bridge traffic until the new westbound ramp is in place.
Workers will erect traffic management signs and temporary traffic lights.
The east-bound exit ramp will have two-way traffic but the city council said that for the first two days of work access to the bridge from the west will be restricted at off-peak times only and all off-peak traffic will therefore have to use the ramp that provides access to the bridge from the east side.
Once work is completed, there will only be one exit route of two lanes, heading west towards Dundee railway station, where it will then become four lanes with traffic lights and allowing drivers to choose whether to go east or west.