East Bridgford: Kirk Hill shut for 12 months from 24 Aug

Kirk Hill and East Bridgford Road close to traffic on Monday 24 August 2026 and are due to stay shut for 12 months. Nottinghamshire County Council is rebuilding the A6097 junction between them, and it says the closure is needed to build the new layout safely.

The main access into East Bridgford becomes Butt Lane and Main Street. A bus that thousands of people in the Rushcliffe villages use every week changes route on the same day.

Here is what the council has published, and what it has not.

What closes, and what replaces it

From Monday 24 August, according to the council’s 10 August announcement:

• Kirk Hill and East Bridgford Road are closed
• the signed diversion runs via Fosse Way, Butt Lane and Main Street
• a temporary speed restriction applies on the A6097
• Trent Lane and Brunt’s Lane stay closed and are not part of the diversion

That last point is the one the council has repeated most often. Drivers are asked not to try either lane as a short cut. Brunt’s Lane is a restricted byway, closed to vehicles, and the council says it will add signage and enforcement to keep traffic off it. Trent Lane has been closed on safety grounds and there are no plans to reopen it for general traffic during the works, although the council’s frequently asked questions say its network management team is reviewing that after residents raised it.

Two other things are still undecided at the point the closure starts. Temporary traffic signals at the Butt Lane and Fosse Way junction are “under consideration”, with final arrangements to be confirmed before works begin. A temporary one-way system on Monday Street and Cherry Holt is being reviewed because of the extra traffic Main Street will carry.

The buses: Shelford and Gunthorpe come off the Villager

trentbarton’s rushcliffe villager runs hourly between Nottingham and Bingham through Radcliffe on Trent and East Bridgford. On 17 August the operator published its own closure notice, and the changes from 24 August are:

• the villager will not serve Shelford or Gunthorpe for the duration of the works
• towards Bingham it runs via Newton first, then East Bridgford, then Bingham
• coming back it serves East Bridgford, then Newton, then Radcliffe and Nottingham
• in East Bridgford you can hail the bus anywhere along Cross Lane and Holloway Close by signalling the driver

trentbarton says the 747 will serve Shelford and Gunthorpe on a special timetable. That service is run by Nottinghamshire County Council’s own fleet under the Nottsbus Connect brand, and it already calls at both villages: the published 747 timetable shows Shelford, Main Road at Burden Lane and Gunthorpe, Main Street at the Unicorn Hotel roughly hourly from mid-morning, Monday to Saturday. That timetable is still the one valid from 15 September 2025.

Update, 27 August 2026. The county has since confirmed what the replacement looks like. Shelford and Gunthorpe get eight additional journeys on the 747, Monday to Saturday, funded by Nottinghamshire County Council; the rest of the 747 is funded by the East Midlands Combined County Authority. Passengers heading for Bingham or Nottingham take the 747 into Radcliffe on Trent and change onto the rushcliffe villager or a mainline service, and a through ticket is available for that change. In East Bridgford the villager turns using Holloway Close, where parking restrictions now apply 24 hours a day, seven days a week for the length of the works; existing parking bays there are unaffected. The council has still not published a revised 747 timetable, so check the times before you travel. (Nottinghamshire County Council, 17 August 2026)

School transport changes too. The council says the N49 and N50 Toot Hill School buses will use temporary routes and pick-up points, and that families affected should speak to the bus operator directly.

Why the junction is being rebuilt

This is not routine maintenance. The council’s own scheme page sets out a junction that has run out of room:

• the A6097 and Kirk Hill signals are over capacity in both the morning and the afternoon and evening peaks
• queues of more than 1,000 metres are already recorded in the afternoon and evening peak
• modelling for 2041 predicts delays of six minutes per vehicle
• the upgrade is tied to planning conditions for the RAF Newton development of 650 homes
• provision for pedestrians and cyclists is limited, which the council calls a safety concern

The rebuild widens the A6097 through the junction to give an extra lane in each direction, widens the right-turn lanes into Kirk Hill and East Bridgford Road, and adds new central road markings, a new signal system, upgraded street lighting and new drainage. The footpath along Kirk Hill is renewed and the bridleway crossing is upgraded for pedestrians, cyclists and horse riders. Danaher and Walsh is the principal contractor, working for the county council and Via East Midlands.

Kirk Hill is one of five junctions in the £43m A614/A6097 Major Road Network scheme. The county council said in December 2025 that the money came from £24.3m from the Department for Transport, £8.3m from the county council itself, £1.7m in developer contributions and the balance from the East Midlands Combined County Authority. The other four junctions are Ollerton Roundabout, White Post Roundabout, Warren Hill and Lowdham Roundabout, all further north.

How long, phase by phase

The phases the council has published run like this:

• Enabling, July 2026. Site set-up and compound, plus pre-construction archaeology. This began on Monday 20 July and is now complete.
• Phase one, August to September 2026. Splitter islands removed, earthworks and utility diversions start, lighting columns on one side removed, traffic signals removed. Kirk Hill and East Bridgford Road closed.
• Phase two, October 2026 to February 2027. Civil engineering and drainage continue. Kirk Hill and East Bridgford Road remain closed.
• Phase three A, February to April 2027. A southbound contraflow on the A6097.
• Phase three B and four, March to June 2027. Central splitters built, with split traffic flow.
• Phase five, June to August 2027. Final surfacing, white lining, high friction surfacing and landscaping.

One thing is worth flagging. The council’s announcement says Kirk Hill and East Bridgford Road “will be closed from 24 August for 12 months”, and its FAQ answers the question “will it be closed for the whole 12 months?” by saying the works require a full closure. But the phase plan on the scheme page only names those two roads as closed in phases one and two, which end in February 2027. It does not repeat the closure for phases three A, three B, four or five. The council has not published a date on which either road reopens. We have not been able to reconcile those two statements from what is published, so treat February 2027 as the earliest point worth re-checking rather than a reopening date.

Two-way signals on the A6097 during off-peak hours and occasional full overnight closures of the A6097 are both expected during phases one and two. Phase five needs a full night-time closure of the A6097.

Working hours are 7am to 6pm Monday to Friday, 7.30am to 1pm on Saturdays, and any overnight work between 10pm and 6am.

What it means for you

If you live in East Bridgford, your route in and out is Butt Lane and Main Street from Monday. Expect Main Street to be busier than usual, and expect that to be worse at school times until the council decides on the Monday Street and Cherry Holt one-way review. Do not plan on Trent Lane or Brunt’s Lane. Neither is opening.

If you catch the rushcliffe villager from Shelford or Gunthorpe, your bus goes from Monday. The 747 is the replacement, and it is a county council service, not a trentbarton one, so check the times on the council’s page rather than trentbarton’s.

If you catch it from East Bridgford, the route through the village changes but you keep a service, and you can flag the bus down along Cross Lane and Holloway Close.

If you drive the A6097 between Bingham and Lowdham, budget extra time from Monday for the temporary speed limit, and expect off-peak two-way signals and some overnight closures across the next six months.

If you want to be told rather than find out, the council runs an email bulletin and a WhatsApp channel for the scheme, both linked from its A614 newsletter page.

We will update the borough’s live closures on our roadworks and travel page as the phases change. The 650 homes at RAF Newton that this junction is conditioned on are covered on our planning page.

Sources

• A614/A6097: Main works to begin at Kirk Hill junction from 24 August, Nottinghamshire County Council newsroom, published 10 August 2026, for the closure date, the diversion, the temporary speed restriction, Trent Lane and Brunt’s Lane, the contractor and Councillor Bert Bingham’s comments.
• Kirk Hill scheme page, Nottinghamshire County Council, page last updated 30 July 2026, for the phase dates, the traffic management in each phase, the capacity and queue-length figures, the 2041 modelling, the RAF Newton planning condition and the scope of the works.
• Kirk Hill frequently asked questions, Nottinghamshire County Council, for the access route into the village, working hours, the Butt Lane signals and Monday Street one-way reviews, the Toot Hill School bus answer and the archaeology start date of 20 July 2026.
• Kirk Hill closure East Bridgford, trentbarton, published 17 August 2026, for the rushcliffe villager route change, the dropped stops, the hail-and-ride arrangement and the 747 replacement.
• 747 bus timetable, Nottinghamshire County Council, valid from 15 September 2025, for the existing Shelford and Gunthorpe calls.
• Changes to bus services as part of Kirk Hill junction works, Nottinghamshire County Council newsroom, published 17 August 2026, for the eight extra 747 journeys, the funding split, the through ticket and the Holloway Close parking restrictions.
• Major investment secured for A614/A6097 upgrade in Nottinghamshire, Nottinghamshire County Council newsroom, published 18 December 2025, for the £43m total, the funding split and the five junctions.