Birmingham City Council’s contractors McPhillips began construction work on the first phase of the wider Snow Hill Public Realm programme – funded by the Greater Birmingham and Solihull Local Enterprise Partnership (£3m) – on Monday 8 June 2020.
This 13-month project aims to improve pedestrian access across Great Charles St Queensway and public realm in the historic Colmore area as well as reducing congestion and delays around Colmore Row and Livery Street.
The first phase will focus on improving public realm along Colmore Row and Livery Street, work will include removal of the right turn from Livery Street onto Colmore Row, meaning all traffic will turn left onto Colmore Row.
This will also see the Livery Street bus stop moved to the main pedestrian entrance for Snow Hill Station and taxi ranks on Colmore Row being moved to create a new rank at the top of Livery Street.
The project will also see changes being made to the current one-way traffic, making it a two-way system between Livery Street’s junctions with Cornwall Street and Barwick Street, to enable exit from Snow Hill car park and Livery Street via Barwick Street or Cornwall Street.
Further works, which are being funded by Colmore BID, will see changes to Cornwall Street which will be happening as part of a wider Snow Hill Public Realm programme.
Cllr Ian Ward, Leader of Birmingham City Council, said:
“Our city centre welcomes more than 42 million people a year, and following the regeneration works around Centenary Square and Paradise, it’s time for us to revitalise the business and retail areas.
“Improving pedestrian access and traffic flow to reduce congestion around Snow Hill and Colmore Row, this will improve people’s experience of Birmingham.”
Director of GBSLEP, Katie Trout said
“After a long time in development, it’s excellent to see work on this strategically important project begin. These improvements to a key commercial area can help to support our region’s route to recovery as we rebuild following the Covid-19 pandemic; high quality public spaces and pedestrian access will become more imperative than ever for our businesses and residents.”
Melanie Williams, Chair of Colmore BID’s Outstanding Places working group and partner at DWF Law LLP, said:
“The BID team with others have worked hard over the course of the last 5 years to bring this project to fruition and it is fantastic to see a start on site and activity within our BID to send clear signals of activity and the progress of works to make the use of our public spaced more user and pedestrian friendly.”
Work on this project is due to be completed in July 2021.