Road works ahead
Page 7
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THE Department of Transport has accepted the £1,923,678 tender of Border Engineering Contractors Ltd for the improvement of the Palliard Bridge to the county boundary section of the A66 Middlesbrough-Penrith-Workington trunk road.
Work will start soon and take about two years to complete.
The new road, is about two and a half miles (4.02km) in length, is part of the overall improvement of the A66. It will start 165 yards (151 metres) west of Palliard Bridge and will end about 275 yards (251 metres) east of the Cumbria/Durham county boundary, and will avoid existing sharp bends and steep gradients which restrict visibility and cause congestion and delays.
The new road, which will have dual 24ft (7.3m) wide two-lane carriageways with 3ft 3in (1m) wide hardened strips on each side of both carriageways and a central reservation 8ft (2.44m) wide, will enable overtaking to take place on the gradients.
A bridge will be built to carry the road over Rowton Beck, and Palliard Bridge will be reconstructed.
The southbound carriageway of the 1.25km (3/4 mile) Al2 Wangford By-pass, Suffolk, opened this week. The northbound carriageway has been open since July.
The new dual-carriageway road has removed the increasing volume of through traffic from Wangford. The existing trunk road has been stopped up at each end of the village and access for traffic to the by-pass from the village has been maintained by means of a realigned section of the Uggershall road.
The DTp is considering a modification of the southern part of the route of the proposed A56 Accrington Easterly By-pass which will run between the proposed Haslingden By-pass and the proposed M65 Calder Valley Route at Huncoat.
The Department will shortly be carrying out survey work on the modified route to make sure that there are no unforeseen ground condition problems.
Following this survey, the Department proposes to publish draft Orders under the Highways Act setting out detailed proposals for the by-pass.
Members of the public suggested in 1975 that the southern part of the proposed route should be modified.
The Department concluded at that time that there was no scope for an acceptable re-alignment and confirmed that the announced route would be protected against new development and developed in more detail.
However, during the detailed development stage, the Department's investigations have shown that both engineering costs and the cost of diverting services could be materially reduced by adopting a modified route over the length between the proposed Haslingden by-pass and just north of Warmden Clough.