£1bn Trans-Pennine Dualling Route Announced

The route for the £1 billion Trans-Pennine dualling transformation has been announced. The new announcement also reveals the list of improvements Highways England wants to take into construction.

The A66 links the M6 at Penrith, Cumbria to the A1(M) at Scotch Corner, North Yorkshire, and is a key route and nationally important road. The works will not only benefit local residents, but the upgrade will also support tourism and freight traffic. Along with this, the road will also improve connections between ports in Scotland and Northern Ireland, as well as those in England at both Hull and Felixstowe.

Grant Shapps, UK Transport Secretary, said: “As we gradually reopen our society, we want to ensure communities across the North are able to benefit from smoother, safer and better-connected journeys.

“Upgrading this vital national link will not only level up infrastructure in the region but will deliver benefits up and down the country – supporting tourism and movement between our key ports.”

The proposals, announced on 25 May 2020, are the most popular options from those who responded to last year’s huge public consultation. They include five new bypasses, key junction improvements and an underpass at the often congested Kemplay Bank roundabout, which is located near Penrith.

Along with creating an underpass instead of a flyover at Kemplay Bank, Highways England is proposing the following options to bypass the existing sections of the route, or provide dualling alongside the existing single carriageway road:

• A northern bypass of a three-mile section between Penrith and Temple Sowerby
• The northern bypass option for Kirkby Thore
• The more northerly of two options bypassing Crackenthorpe
• Taking forward the single option to dual a five-mile section between Appleby and Brough alongside the existing section of single carriageway
• Similarly, converting a 1.9-mile section of the route north of Bowes – the current, single carriageway Bowes bypass – into a dual carriageway
• A bypass south of the Old Rectory between Cross Lane and Rokeby instead of a conversion which would have required demolishing buildings
• The most northerly of three bypass options linking sections of existing dual carriageway between Stephen Bank and Carkin Moor.

Mike Townsend, Highways England’s Senior Project Manager, said: “We are delighted more than 92% of people backed the idea of completing the dualling of the A66. Since the consultation ended ten months ago, we have carefully considered all public responses. We have revisited issues such as the environmental impact of each option, how we can reconnect communities currently separated by the existing road and how to improve the route for pedestrians and cyclists.

“The options we have revealed are the ones we want to take forward into construction, but they were also the most popular among people who responded in the consultation.

“We feel the proposals reflect our and the Government’s visions of a Northern Trans-Pennine route fit for the rest of the century. They also reflect the aspirations of the majority of people, including a diverse range of interest groups, who engaged with us in many months of discussion or gave us their views during the consultation.”

These proposals also include a number of significant improvements to the existing junctions between Barnard Castle and the A66 at Bowes and Rokeby. These will also improve safety at the two junctions, and make for safer, smoother journeys for HGVs.

The preferred options will now go into a period of further analysis, development and design, before a second public consultation and scrutiny period next year. Highways England also announced on 25 May that the £45 million design contract for the project, which was put out to tender in October, has been awarded to Amey Consulting in collaboration with Arup.Further information on the project can be found on the project website.

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