Plymouth city centre is set for more disruption as a huge “temporary road” is carved down the middle of Armada Way. Shoppers are being warned the work, part of a £30m revamp, will be “noisy and dirty” – but shops will remain open.
Contractors Morgan Sindall will be creating the new “haul road” through the busy thoroughfare to allow construction materials and machinery to be moved around the central section of Armada Way and therefore keep workers and the public safe. The road is going to be formed between Mayflower Street and Place de Brest – which is Zone 2 of the Armada Way scheme.
The raised beds which date from the 1980s will be removed and the surface levelled. Plymouth City Council admitted the work is likely to be “noisy and dirty” initially – but stressed the temporary road will be a significant distance from shop fronts and separated from the public by tough and “more permanent” CLD fencing, before hoarding is put up.
To help keep the mud levels down, trucks and machinery that move on and off the site from Mayflower Street will be hosed down, the council said. The work will take place between the hours of 7am and 6pm.
The haul road marks the next step in the progress of the Armada Way scheme. Since the start of work at the beginning of October the project has been focussed in the top compounds, outside the Copthorne Hotel and Armada Centre.
The site has been cleared, drainage trenches dug and pipework installed for rain gardens. The planned amphitheatre performance space around the Phoenix Fountain is also taking shape.
The haul road will herald the start of work in Zone 2, which will entail removing the low-rise walls, clearing the planting – which will be redistributed around Plymouth’s parks where appropriate – and levelling the ground. Existing granite elements will also be removed to be recycled where possible.
Cllr Tudor Evans, Labour leader of Plymouth City Council, said: “This project has only been going for three months and you can already see serious change on the ground. This next section is going to be transformed – it’s where the play area will be, it will have a water feature running through it and water jets. These features are a while off, but it’s great to see this important project cracking on at such a pace.”
Work began at Armada Way in October 2024 after a High Court Judge dismissed legal action brought by campaign group Save the Trees of Armada Way (Straw). The group had claimed the council breached a legal injunction and not allowed sufficient time for a challenge before felling 110 trees in March 2023.
An independent review of the council’s decision has now begun. People have until January 6 to have their say about the council’s decision to chop down trees to make way for the scheme in March 2023.
The independent inquiry will focus on whether the authority carried out sufficient consultations and the financial implications of its actions. The original scheme, which had been priced at £12.7m, was torn up by the new Labour administration last year and a new plan put in place.
In September the council approved spending of £29,892,665 on the new project. PlymouthLive revealed the council will have to borrow nearly £10m and sell off millions of pounds of assets to pay for the Armada Way revamp.
Council documents showed that almost a third of the cost – £9,238,401 – will come from corporate borrowing. Another 29% will be paid from the sale of “surplus property”.
The council has “ring-fenced” assets which it is selling, estimated to be worth about £12,750,000 of which £8,716,449 will be used to pay construction costs on the Armada Way scheme. Until they are sold, short-term corporate borrowing will be needed to underwrite the use of these capital receipts which could take two to five years to come in.
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