Rebuilding of the Seafront Shelter Hall.

BHCC has won £9 million funding from the government’s Highways Maintenance Challenge Fund to rebuild the Shelter Hall, at 150-154 Kings Road Arches. This was built in the 1880s and supports the upper promenade and the highway. It is currently in very poor condition. In 2013 internal props were installed to prevent the structure from collapse and to protect pedestrians and cyclists above. This propping-up is currently costing the council around £110,000 a year. Permanent restoration is essential to prevent the A259 from collapsing and to protect the roadway for the next 150 years.

The historic Shelter Hall will be remodelled to provide two internal floors instead of the current one, with a rotunda on top and a roof terrace. The Council plans for these spaces to become a flagship commercial location for the 21st century, in turn earning revenue to help maintain the seafront. The building will also incorporate new public toilets, creating a new walkway on the beach, enlarging the upper promenade area and building new public toilets on the seafront.

Preparatory work has begun on realignment of the lower promenade opposite the bottom of West Street. Construction is planned to start in October.

As the work progresses, one lane of the westbound carriageway will be shut for a distance of about 50 metres either side of the bottom of West Street. The junction will include a filter for right turns into West Street.

Due to the age of the structure and complexity of the construction, the closure is expected to be in place from 2016 for two and a half years.  This is now the main coastal route through the city and engineers will be rebuilding it underneath the road.

Brighton & Hove City Council is contributing nearly £1.7 million towards the scheme from Local Transport Plan funding. The project will be overseen by the team which created the award-winning seafront arches restoration near the i360 development.

The council will be making sure that disruption to traffic is kept to a minimum, and the partial lane closure will be linked to an overall plan to ensure traffic management is co-ordinated with other major schemes in the city.

During the work to rebuild the Shelter Hall, shared pedestrian and cycle access along the upper prom will be maintained at all times, along with access to the lower prom. The West Street junction will also be kept open including access to Churchill Square and car parks.

The Rotunda

Se also: The lower promenade shelter hall