Measures in place to avoid another night of gridlock in Manchester

Commuters are being urged to plan ahead and allow extra time for their journeys ahead of this evening’s rush hour to avoid travel delays.

Last night saw the city centre grind to a halt because of planned and emergency roadworks, bad weather as well as signal failures and broken down vehicles.

During the chaos vehicles became blocked at major junctions, causing gridlock across the city centre for buses, cars and tram services.

A number of measures have been put now been put in place by Transport for Greater Manchester (TfGM) and Manchester City Council (MCC) to help avoid another night of chaos ahead of tonight’s Manchester United home game and the Conservative Party Conference, which starts this weekend.

A number of traffic hotspots have been identified following an urgent review by MCC and TfGM and some roadworks have been suspended or scaled back as a result to ease traffic flows, these include:

• Medlock Street: Civic Quarter Heat Network Gas main works have been scaled back to allow two lanes towards the roundabout from 2pm today - excavation works are being reviewed by MCC to reduce future impacts;

• Princess Street (outside Manchester Art Gallery): completed and road re-opened at 2pm today to enable buses routes to open this afternoon;

• Great Ancoats Street: no lane closures to be allowed until after the Conservative Party Conference;

• Whitworth Street: lane closure cleared by 3pm today; and

• No new city centre roadworks will be permitted (apart from emergencies) after 3pm each day until after evening peak.

We're being warned there may still be some delays because of ongoing roadworks and restrictions which can't be lifted.

Tonight also sees Manchester United take on Rochdale at Old Trafford and the start of localised traffic management being put in place for the Conservative Party Conference.

TfGM’s control room will be monitoring the situation in real-time throughout the day and evening and signals will be adjusted, where possible, to reduce any delays and prioritise vehicles heading out of the city centre.

Transport bosses are urging drivers to remain patient, not block junctions or take any risks to get around slow moving traffic.

We're also being advised to allow extra time for journeys, to travel outside rush hour and avoid the city centre for cross-city car journeys.

Metrolink will have staff on the ground across the city centre to monitor tram services and TfGM staff will also be out to ensure any delays to transport services are reported and managed as quickly as possible.

Any football fans travelling from Rochdale to Old Trafford are being told to consider using Metrolink or rail services, or, if they are driving, use Park and Ride sites or the M60 and M602 to get to the ground.

The latest travel advice can be found by following @OfficialTfGM on Twitter or checking the TfGM website.