Work on Sunderland's new 'Northern Gateway' gets underway

North Bridge Street and Dame Dorothy Street are to become two-way for all traffic in what has been described as a 'Northern Gateway'.

Council bosses are hoping the scheme will improve traffic in and out of the city.

Traffic management is now in place as road widening works and footpath improvements have begun.

The work is set to be completed in stages, and will take a break for July's Tall Ships Event and the Sunderland International Airshow.

The council’s cabinet backed the gateway’s works programme at its January meeting after the authority secured an extra £3.36million of funding for the scheme through the National Productivity Investment Fund (NPIF).

This allowed the council to revise the budget and propose extra features including more highway resurfacing and new paving throughout the North Bridge Street area.

The scheme includes:

• New signalised junction at the Church Street North/Dame Dorothy Street junction, with new pedestrian crossing facilities.

• Road widening on Dame Dorothy Street for two-way traffic which will also include the construction of a new retaining wall within the grass verge.

• New road layout at the North Bridge Street/Dame Dorothy Street junction to allow a right turn onto Dame Dorothy Street.

• Amendments to the Wheatsheaf junction to allow all vehicles to travel southbound on North Bridge Street

• Changes to the roadmarkings over the Wearmouth Bridge and southern bridgehead roundabout.