Work starting at the junction of Rockingham Street and West Street - May 2025

We're starting work on Saturday 24 May to change the junction of West Street and Rockingham Street.

We will change the junction with West Street to include pedestrian crossings all around the junction, and to allow buses to turn into Rockingham Street. We'll make the section of Rockingham Street between West Street and Division Street two-way for all traffic, and we will introduce a southbound bus gate between Devonshire Lane and Wellington Street. This will give buses travelling towards Charter Row priority access. It will also make bus journeys into the city centre quicker and more direct, and create a safer environment for pedestrians.

Planned works

We will do the work to enable the changes between Saturday 24 May 2025 and Friday 28 November 2025.

The first phase of the works will replace the kerbs and paving and improve drainage at the junction of Rockingham Street and West Street. These works will take place from Saturday 24 May 2025 to Friday 30 May 2025. We'll work alongside a separate Supertram closure taking place that week to minimise disruption.

Once we've completed these initial works, we'll move to start work on the footway on the side of the junction outside the Bailey Court Jobcentre. These works will take place between Monday 2 June 2025 and Tuesday 1 July 2025. We'll be replacing kerbs and paving here, and adding ducting and street furniture.

We're also planning further works between Wednesday 2 July 2025 and Friday 28 November 2025, We'll keep this page up to date with more details nearer the time.

Managing disruption

We will do the first phase of works alongside the planned Supertram closure. This means we can avoid needing a separate closure, which will reduce the impact on local residents, businesses and road users.

Replacement bus services will run during the tram closure from Saturday 24 May to Friday 30 May. There's more information on these below.

So our teams can carry out the first phase of work safely and effectively, we'll need to use some temporary traffic management. This will include:

  • Temporary four-way traffic lights regulating road traffic from each arm of the junction of West Street and Rockingham Street.
  • Temporary fences and blocks on the footways as we’re working. We'll only put these up around the sections we’re working in. This will reduce the impact on pedestrians and ensure we can keep footway access along at least one side of the road throughout the works.

You'll still be able to access restaurants, bars and nightclubs near the junction throughout the works.

When we start work outside the Bailey Court Jobcentre between Monday 2 June 2025 and Tuesday 1 July 2025, we'll need to use temporary traffic measures so our teams can work safely and effectively. These will include:

  • Closing the footway to pedestrians between 7am and 7pm each day. We'll reopen the footways in the evenings and overnight, and we’ll maintain access to the Jobcentre. You can cross the road using the nearby crossings at Carver Street and outside Tesco Express.
  • A one-way closure of the section of Rockingham Street between Portobello Street and West Street for motor vehicles travelling towards West Street. Vehicles will be diverted along Portobello Lane and Mappin Street.

We'll also need to suspend the bus stop outside the Jobcentre so our teams can work on site. Buses will use the nearby stop on Carver Street instead during the works. Once the changes are introduced, and buses can turn into Rockingham Street, we will remove the stop outside the Jobcentre.

We won't need to do any night working as part of this first phase of works.

We'll do all we can to reduce the impact on local residents. We apologise in advance for any disturbance this may cause.

Replacement bus services

While we're working and trams aren't running to Cathedral from Saturday 24 May to Friday 30 May, replacement bus services will run for the Blue and Yellow tram routes. They'll serve some bus stops along the affected routes.

The BL1 service will run between Cathedral and Malin Bridge and the YE1 service will run between Cathedral and Middlewood, serving limited bus stops located near all the affected tram stops along the routes as follows: 

The BL1 and YE1 services will operate:

  • Monday to Saturday: every 20 minutes in the early morning, every 12 minutes during the day and every 30 minutes in the evening
  • Sunday: every 20 minutes in the early morning and during the day, and every 30 minutes in the evening

The BL1 and YE1 services will operate via Langsett Road during the day and Penistone Road after 7pm.

You can find out more about the replacement bus services and timetables on the Travel South Yorkshire website.

You can use any valid tram or multi-modal ticket to travel on the BL1 and BL2 replacement bus services.

Implementing the changes

We will implement most of these changes initially through an Experimental Traffic Order (ETO), so we can trial them before deciding whether to make them permanent, amend them or remove them.

But we will install some elements, such as the pedestrian crossings, as permanent features straight away through a separate Traffic Regulation Order (TRO).

ETOs can stay in place for a maximum of 18 months while we monitor and assess the effects. You can provide formal feedback on an ETO for the first six months after it’s implemented.

More information and getting in touch

We'll keep this page up to date as the project continues. In the meantime, if you have any questions or comments, you can contact us through the following channels:

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