WINDLE Island is set to fully reopen tomorrow evening – after more than seven months of works.

Tomorrow, Friday, April 26, the £7m investment scheme aimed at improving the oldest purpose designed intercity highway in the UK is set to finish.

The A570/A580 reopened yesterday morning, Wednesday, April 24 and the Crank Road junction opened today Thursday, April 25.

St Helens Council have stated that off peak closures will be in place on all approaches to Windle Island tomorrow between the hours of 9.30am and 3.30pm to allow for tarmacking and finishing touches to grassed areas to be made ahead of the junction’s full reopening that evening.

More than half of the Windle Island junction improvement scheme has been funded by the Local Growth Fund through the Liverpool City Region Combined Authority’s Single Investment Fund.

Improvements include:

- Controlled pedestrian crossings on all arms of the junctions using the latest energy efficient traffic signal equipment

- A new four lane southbound approach to Windle Island Junction, providing a dedicated left turning lane to A580 eastbound towards Manchester and a dedicated right turning lane to A580 westbound towards Liverpool

- The reintroduction of two lanes southbound through the junction, with the left hand lane for St Helens Town Centre via Rainford Road (including Tesco and Starbucks access), and the right hand lane for Eccleston and Prescot via Bleak Hill Road

- A new left turn deceleration lane from A580 westbound onto A570 southbound to reduce queue lengths and improve safety

- Two dedicated right turn lanes from the A580 westbound (towards Liverpool) onto the A570 northbound (towards Rainford). This will reduce queue lengths

- A new 40 mph speed limit around the junction to improve safety