High wind road closure rules in Leeds should be scrapped, say experts

A Leeds City Council report includes claims from wind experts, claiming extra wind mitigation works introduced over the past few years have significantly reduced wind speeds in the area around Neville Street and Water Lane. It adds protocols around diverting high-sided vehicles and, in some cases, traffic altogether, should no longer be in place.

However, it added that guard railing, pedestrian screens and warning signs should be retained “for a further three to five years” to provide an “additional safeguard”.

It follows the opening of the building in 2007, after which there have been a number of incidents of accelerated wind speeds.

The experts were employed by Bridgewater Place, and their findings were peer-reviewed and verified by an independent wind expert.

The advice read: “The mitigations have improved the wind environment around the building, at ground level, to a safe level of wind speed.

“The results indicate that there are no locations that exceed the criteria of 15m/s mean wind speed. This is the limit above which the wind presents a safety risk, especially to more vulnerable members of the public and cyclists.

“In the absence of accredited principles for wind speed for vehicles, assumptions have been made on the basis that those appropriate for cyclists are also appropriate for vehicles.

“As this meets the requirement required for any planning application in the city, we are satisfied that the risk to pedestrians, cyclists and therefore vehicles is sufficiently reduced to allow the traffic restrictions to be lifted.”

It added, however, that there remained a “residual risk”, adding: “Like anywhere in the city that is based on the same Lawson Criteria, where a combination of scenarios could coincide and result in a safety risk and an accident, and we can not warrant that this will not occur.”

The report also added that there were still three “residual hotspot areas” where wind reached high speeds, but that “None of these areas have any proximity to or co-relation to the area of highway that is impacted by the high winds protocol.”

Recommendations listed in the report were made on behalf of the building owner and agreed “by the expert acting on behalf of the council”.

It stated: “On the basis of this advice, it is recommended that the high wind protocol pursuant to which high sided vehicles are diverted, and on occasions the roads are totally closed to vehicles is no longer necessary.

“Notwithstanding the above, it is suggested that the pedestrian guard railing; pedestrian screen on the eastern side of Victoria Road; electronic vehicle sign and the road signage for pedestrians and cyclists warning of ‘risk of gusty wind’ are retained for a further three-five years to provide an additional precautionary safeguard to be reviewed thereafter.”

It added that further work would be done to mitigate wind in the three remaining “hotspot” areas.

The council report concluded: “The implementation of the Wind Amelioration Scheme around Bridgewater Place has been completed and is working as expected around the Victoria Road / Neville Street / Water Lane junction.

“All pedestrian safety fail points have been removed from the

junction and on Water Lane. The high wind protocol is therefore no longer required.

“There are three remaining pedestrian safety fail points to the south of the building which fall within the highway and privately owned Bridgewater Place land which require further mitigation.”

On the three “residual hotspots” it added: “An agreement has been made with the building owner who will apply for planning permission to install bespoke and specially designed porous screens and complete their installation as soon as possible after each permission has been granted to remove one safety fail point within privately owned public realm land.

“A second safety fail point within the access to the service yard will be dealt with by a management arrangement to prevent public access. The third fail point is a marginal safety fail within the highway and this will be tested further and monitored to see if mitigation is required in future.”

Currently, when wind speeds exceed 35 mph, high sided vehicles are diverted from Victoria Road, Neville Street and Water Lane. When wind speeds exceed 45 mph, a vehicular road closure is implemented and pedestrians are diverted to walk behind a screen on Victoria Road.

The item will be discussed at Leeds City Council's Executive board on