‘New Baillie Street’ opens from John Street

Date published: 12 October 2018

The new road and traffic signals from John Street into the new Rochdale Riverside development have opened.

The new road will be called ‘New Baillie Street’ and will also provide vehicle access to a new service yard in the Wheatsheaf Shopping Centre, not pedestrian access.

There is now no direct access to the town centre, One Riverside, the bus and tram stations, or Mecca Bingo for pedestrians walking down Penn Street from Yorkshire Street.

New Baillie Street starts where the old Telegraph House building used to be, and there is no right turn for pedestrians.

To get across to the town centre, One Riverside, the bus and tram stations, etc pedestrians need to turn left, along New Baillie Street, cross John Street at the new traffic lights, then turn right into Smith Street.

Now the new road is open Milton Street (which linked Penn Street to Smith Street) is closed permanently and access to Mecca Bingo and Number One Riverside is via Smith Street only.

Temporary access has been created in front of the Wheatsheaf Shopping Centre for service vehicles travelling along Yorkshire Street and Baillie Street. This access will be restricted to one way heading out towards the new road and limited to between the hours of 6pm and 10am.  This temporary access will remain in place until early next year when Constantine Road will re-open to traffic.  These new access arrangements are shown on the plan below.

Work on the Rochdale Riverside retail and leisure development continues to make good progress. 

A substantial part of the steel work for the cinema block has been completed and remediation and groundworks continue across the eastern part of the site.