Harewood Bridge closure: Leeds drivers face 15-mile diversion as historic bridge to shut for third time

Grade-II listed Harewood Bridge, which carries the A61 Leeds to Harrogate Road across the River Wharfe, will be shut overnight on Wednesday 18 and Thursday, October 19 to carry out further resurfacing work. There will be a 15-mile signed diversion in place to allow for specialist work, which wasn’t able to be completed during the previous closure, to be carried out.

The bridge sees 17,000 vehicles use it each day and was recently closed for a period of three weeks during the summer for waterproofing, resurfacing and footpath repair works.

Coun Matthew Robinson, Harewood ward, said: “You will recall that essential maintenance works were completed on the Harewood Bridge over the summer holidays. As part of these works a specialist contractor was required to apply a small area of upgraded surfacing at the south end of the bridge and these works were unable to be undertaken at the time but we have now been able to arrange this.

“We plan to do the works on Wednesday 18th and Thursday 19th October with overnight closures from 8pm - 5.30am. It may be that the works are completed in one night but this will depend on the weather conditions. The Bridges Team are working with Connecting Leeds and there will be a diversion plan.”

In March, local resident Diane Lowe, 66, contacted the Yorkshire Evening Post after becoming embroiled in a row with Leeds City Council over claims that a pothole on the bridge had caused hundreds of pounds worth of damage to her car.