Video of Lara Croft Way, Derby Inner Ring Road and new road layouts.

This is the latest video in my “Derby Streets by car in HD” series, this one is a short car journey that encompasses all of the latest new roads and road changes relating to the Connecting Derby project on Derby Inner Ring Road.
These Roads are either newly opened or one way roads that have become two way.
Lara Croft Way is a newly constructed road where as the parts of Normanton Road and Burton Road were previously one way roads, these are now two way roads.

Lara Croft Way opened in two stages one direction on 11th May 2010 and the other way on 27th July 2010.

Because these are new roads they are not on Google Maps or Google Streetview.

However I have generated a detailed map showing the new roads and how they connect to form the new Derby inner ring road. I have also made a 360 degree interactive panoramic photograph near the traffic island at Lara Croft Way (a-la Google Streetview).

Also the driving video I have made here will allow you to see how it all connects together. This video was filmed at 7am on Wednesday 28th July 2010 which is why there is little traffic on the roads, giving a better view than queuing traffic!

Lara Croft Way Driving video

If you have a fast broadband connection and high-end PC then best to view in 720p HD and fullscreen.
The driving Video Route Details.
The drive starts on Burton Road (A5250) heading into Derby. On the right side you can see Mount Street which is where (up until 27/07/2010) you would rejoin the inner ring road in the clockwise direction. As you can see this section of Burton Road is now two way.

On the right we pass The Duke of York Pub.

We now arrive at the new Round-a-bout, this connects the following roads.

Burton Road (two way)
Mercian Way (not yet open), the next section of the inner ring road.
Green Lane (one way)
Babington Lane (one way)
Lara Croft Way (two way)
Normanton Road (two way)
At this round-a-bout I take the 4th exit onto Lara Croft Way, This is a brand new road which forms part of the final link of Derby Inner Ring Road. Lara Croft Way cuts through former streets such as Sacheverel Street and Wilmot Street. Lara Croft Way then connects to the existing round-a-bout on Osmaston Road.

The Osmaston Road round-a-bout connects the following roads:
Lara Croft Way (two way)
Osmaston Road A514 towards the Spot (two way)
Bradshaw Way A601, (two way) Existing inner ring road.
Osmaston Road A514 (two way) towards Allenton.
Charnwood Street (one way) now closed off.
Leopold Street (one way) now closed off.
Lara Croft Way

At the Osmaston Road round-a-bout I take the 4th exit which takes me back up Lara Croft Way in the other direction. At this round-a-bout I take left into Normanton Road. This section of Normanton Road used to be one way, as you can see its now two way. On the left is Leopold Street which is the way you used to go to get onto the inner ring road, Leopold Street was closed off on Tuesday 11th May 2010 when Lara Croft Way opened up in one direction only.

At the Charnwood Street junction you would normally see inner ring road traffic coming from the left but Charnwood Street is now blocked off at the Osmaston Road end.

Here on Normanton Road I turn right into Southgate Retail Park (Lidl) and do a u-turn in the entrance and head back onto Normanton Road towards Derby centre.

Notice here on the left that the slip road leading to Mill Hill Lane has been closed off, instead Normanton Road has become two way. So as of July 27th the Mill Hill Lane/Mount Street/Burton Road/Normanton Road loop part of the Old Inner Ring road is now no longer needed.

You are now allowed to drive Down Normanton Road in the other direction.

At the round-a-bout I turn left onto Burton Road which is now two way. It feels very strange being able to drive down this bit of Burton Road in this direction after all the years of it being one way.
Here we rejoin Burton Road where Mount Street used to join with it.

Detailed Driving Route Map:

View Lara Croft Way, Derby Inner Ring Road Driving video Route in a larger map

On the first day of these new roads opening I was stuck in horrendous queues of traffic but I think once the Derby City council have adjusted the traffic light sequences at Lara Croft Way then this new section of the inner ring road will help a lot. I look forward to seeing the remaining section of the inner ring road opening between Lara Croft Way and Ford Street, this will complete Derby Inner Ring Road

Hope you enjoyed this little trip.
Andy