Edinburgh traffic: Where Edinburgh ranks as UK's 10 cities with most roadworks named

It comes after experts at online tyre retailer, Blackcircles, sent Freedom of Information requests to UK local authorities to determine which areas had the most roadworks in 2024, the total number of road closures due to roadworks and the duration of each roadwork project carried out.

Once the information was obrained, Blackcircles compiled a Top 10, which you can see below.

Aberdeen is top for the local authorities with the longest road closures. Last year, road closures lasted for an average of 93 calendar days. The longest road works in the area are each expected to finish after around 365 calendar days.

Newcastle upon Tyne is second among local authorities with the longest road closures. This is surprising given that during 2024, the local council reported just two road closures per 10,000. Yet, despite this, road closures lasted an average of 88 calendar days. The longest-running road closure in the area took around 548 calendar days.

In third place, Edinburgh, which, on average, had roads closed for around 59 calendar days. The longest road closure in the area was on South St David Street, which will last around 547 calendar days, and is expected to end later in 2025.

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Outside of London, Liverpool is the UK city where motorists face the most roadworks. In 2024, 31,765 roadworks were carried out in the northwest city, which is equivalent to 631 per 10,000 people.

Blackpool is the UK area with the fewest number of roadworks. In 2024, 41 roadworks were carried out, which equates to 3 per 10,000 people.

In 2024, Birmingham City Council closed 10,463 roads to carry out maintenance. This is equivalent to 90 per 10,000 people, higher than any other local authority.

Edinburgh tops the list of UK areas with the highest average duration of roadworks. In 2024, the average duration of maintenance projects in the Scottish capital lasted for 80 calendar days.

You can view the full research again here – www.blackcircles.com/news/uk-roadwork-report

UK areas with the longest duration of road closures: 1 - Aberdeen City Council - average length of road closures (calendar days) 93; 2 - Newcastle upon Tyne City Council, 88; 3 - City of Edinburgh Council, 59; 4 - Leicester City Council, 55; 5 - Southwark Borough Council, 53; 6 - Swindon Borough Council, 33; 7 - City of London Corporation, 26; 8 - Leeds City Council, 21; 9 - Ealing Borough Council, 20; 10 - Lewisham Borough Council, 18.