Edinburgh's London Road 'gyratory system' to be removed this weekend

A traffic management system installed last summer around Edinburgh's London Road and Easter Road area will be removed on Sunday.
The gyratory system which has been in place since last summer. Picture: Image via @edintravel ECCThe gyratory system which has been in place since last summer. Picture: Image via @edintravel ECC
The gyratory system which has been in place since last summer. Picture: Image via @edintravel ECC

A Tweet posted this afternoon by the official Edinburgh Travel News account, which is run by people in the council's road team, said: "The London Road gyratory system is due to be removed early on Sun 23rd with squads on site from around 6am. The road layout will return to how it was prior to the Leith Street closure. Please take care in the area and allow for some delays during the swap-over period."

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MAP: New road layout for London Road, Montrose Terrace and Easter Road

Under the traffic management system, which was installed in August last year, there has been no right turn heading eastbound off London Road to the top part of Easter Road and to Abbeyhill. Instead, drivers have been turning right at Montrose Terrace.

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Motorists have also not been able to turn right onto London Road from Easter Road.

The gyratory system is a one-way loop system designed to encourage the circular movement of traffic. It was put in place to deal with the extra traffic expected in the area because of the Leith Street closure, associated with the St James shopping centre redevelopment.

It remained in place following the initial reopening of Leith Street in agreement with the local authority, to allow for the smooth reintroduction of traffic to Leith Street and to avoid highway works during the busy festival period.

Work has been taking place since September 3rd to uninstall the gyratory system and this has caused some delays.

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The work includes the removal and replacement of road markings, restoring traffic islands at the London Road/Easter Road junction, installing proper signage and altering traffic signals.

All of the roads adjacent to the gyratory that are currently closed will be reopened following this programme.