Drivers face around six months of one-way traffic through Killay Square from Monday 16 November, as work finally starts on the drain that is meant to stop the junction flooding.
Swansea Council says the job on Goetre Fawr Road and Gower Road will take about 26 weeks, which runs it into May.
The junction, where Gower Road meets Goetre Fach Road and Goetre Fawr Road, has been shut by flooding time and again, with cars stalling in the water and buses diverted.
The council says the existing drains simply cannot take the volume of water that comes through in heavy rain.
A 600mm overflow pipe to the stream behind the library
The fix is an overflow pipe, 600mm across, running from the junction to the open watercourse behind Killay Library, which feeds a tributary of the River Clyne. The idea is to split the flow between the old pipe and the new one.
The council’s transport programme put the cost at £800,000 in April, when the money was confirmed. The release announcing the start date does not give a figure.
It is paid for through the Welsh Government’s Regional Transport Fund, after an earlier £265,000 Resilient Roads grant paid for the studies at Killay and on Gower.
What drivers can expect from 16 November
The traffic order, published by Dunvant and Killay’s Liberal Democrat councillors Jeff Jones and Mary Jones, makes the bottom 130 metres of Goetre Fawr Road one way, from the Gower Road junction up to Ridgeway. The council’s map shows that flow heading away from the square, towards Dunvant.
Traffic that would have come down Goetre Fawr Road to the square is sent round by Dunvant Road, Wimmerfield Drive and Gower Road, a 2.4km diversion.
Goetre Fach Road becomes one way for the 150 metres between Wimmerfield Avenue and Gower Road, carrying traffic down towards the shops. The 1.8km diversion the other way is Gower Road, Wimmerfield Drive and Dunvant Road.
Ridgeway is closed for 25 metres at its junction with Goetre Fawr Road, with access via Broadmead instead. The top of Goetre Fawr Road, from Broadmead to Dunvant Road, is kept for residents and businesses.
The order runs from 16 November for up to 18 months, the standard maximum, though the council expects the work itself to take 26 weeks. It also holds the power to close Goetre Fach Road fully if needed, and pedestrians and emergency vehicles get through throughout.
Cllr Andrew Stevens, the cabinet member for environment and infrastructure, said: “This is a major drainage infrastructure installation and unfortunately cannot be completed without some disruption for motorists and residents living in the area.”
He added: “We are doing all we can to complete this important scheme with as little disruption as possible.”
A warning sign has already gone up by the library turning, dated 24 October, so some advance work may be visible before the main dig starts.
The council says residents, businesses, councillors and community groups were consulted on the design. The scheme went out to the public in January with the pipe route already settled.
Scurlage and Llandewi next
Killay is one of two flood schemes the council has on its books. The other is the A4118 between Scurlage and Llandewi, where heavy rain can make the road impassable.
That one is further back. Funding to design it was confirmed in April, with construction to follow once the design is done, and no start date has been given.
Cllr Stevens said the Killay funding had been secured “so we can tackle this issue head on and make sure the roads are not impacted by severe weather in the future”.
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