The A59 at Kex Gill/Blubberhouses will be closed from 9.00pm tonight between Kex Gill Road and Hall Lane to enable debris to be removed overnight following exceptionally heavy and persistent rainfall over the last two days.
North Yorkshire County Council’s will endeavour to re-open the road by 9.00am tomorrow morning.
A diversion will be in operation for through traffic and will be signed on site. The diversion route will follow the A65 (Ilkley), the A660 (Otley), and the A658 (Harrogate).
County Councillor Gareth Dadd, North Yorkshire’s Executive Member for Highways said:
Because of preventative work we carried out to this stretch of road last year we have managed to minimise the impact of this week’s severe weather and also the length of time we need to close the road.
Hi can you tell me why at 10 am on Saturday morning why the signes saying road closed at Skipton and Harrogate are still up? Being a business owner at Bolton abbey this is obviously effecting my business.
The road however is not blocked and traffic passing through.
Paul Farrar
It’s high time that this route was sorted out properly. The A59 is the only decent crossing route between the M62 and the A66, so inevitably there’s a lot of traffic on it – particularly trucks.
Ideally the route should be a dual carriageway from the M65 to the A1, but in the present climate there’s a zero likelihood of that happening. Yet until something is done, the A59 will continue to be blighted by closure and heavy traffic.
You live on the line of this dual carriageway I take it or is this a case of someone elses problem.
I live in harrogate and work in skipton. this closure is a disgrace. My travel time has gone from 30 minutes to almost two hours either way due to no reasonable diversion. ilkley has major roadworks and otley is gridlocked. I find this is incredibly inconvenient and very expensive in travel costs.