Road collapse closes shared space section

Church Street last summer when shared space work was going on

A section of Church Street, near to the Twelve Tellers pub, is to be dug up to carry out urgent repairs. And the work is expected to last for up to two weeks.

Highways staff at Lancashire County Council announced the closure late yesterday, saying workmen would try to get the road back open sooner than the estimate of a fortnight.

But bus services look set to be disrupted with an alternative route in place to get traffic around the scene.

County Hall said the problems were due to a “depression” in the road surface between the popular Tellers pub and the city’s Minster.

It is not known at this stage what caused the road to collapse. But the section of Church Street is part of Preston’s shared space scheme and resurfacing work only finished there last year.

A statement from County Hall said: “A section of Church Street in central Preston will be closed from Monday 27 March to carry out urgent repair work to a depression which has developed on the road.

“One lane will be closed between Lancaster Road and Guild Row, close to the Twelve Tellers pub and Preston Minster. This affects traffic leaving the city centre. The lane running towards the city centre remains open.

“Lancashire County Council engineers estimate that the work could take up to two weeks to complete. They hope to be able to finish sooner, however the first step will be to establish the cause of the issue.”