Loyal set up to £1.5bn Trans-Pennine avenue plan

Campaign community Transport Action Network (TAN) has launched a felony set up to the granting of a pattern consent whine (DCO) for the £1.5bn plan.

Transport secretary Stamp Harper signed the DCO for the A66 project on seventh March 2024. TAN’s case is that the choice-making used to be flawed.

Chris Todd, TAN’s founder and director, talked about: “The £1.5bn A66 Northern Trans-Pennine represents very downhearted price for cash and must space off mountainous wound to crucial landscapes and vegetation and fauna. At a time after we’re experiencing more flooding attributable to climate trade, this could perhaps additionally drive up carbon emissions by 2.7 million tonnes. By encouraging more HGVs this could perhaps additionally also create the present parts of the A66 that are already dualled more unhealthy.

“We mediate the secretary of sing has no longer thought to be these points wisely, playing away £1.5bn of taxpayers’ cash in the job. National Highways must in its place be enforcing more inexpensive and faster security measures on this avenue, for a fragment of the price and with out harming the ambiance or taking us backwards on climate.”

The plan in ask involves dualling the final note single carriageway sections of the A66 between M6 Junction 40 (Penrith) and the A1 at Scotch Corner – 18 miles of carriageway are to be dualled in total. There are eight separate sections to be delivered, a mixture of novel junction schemes, avenue widening and some fresh avenue alignments.

Contractors Balfour Beatty, Keltbray, Kier and Costain were signed up by National Highways in October 2022 to collaborate on the plan. Costain withdrew from the project last year.

National Highways is pushing on with the plan no matter acknowledging it’s miles downhearted price for cash.

The 2022 price estimate of £1.3bn, rising to £1.490bn including allowances for possibility and inflation, presentations a income-price ratio (BCR) of 0.90 – BCR needs to be above 1.0 representing a definite return and attributable to this fact price for cash. Irrespective of being downhearted price, the authorities considers the project to be “crucial for levelling-up and financial whine in the northern areas”.

National Highways talked about: “We are upset regarding the felony set up as we mediate our proposals will present worthy most necessary improved security and reliability for drivers and firms that spend this vitally crucial route each day, whereas also delivering a rob to the regional economy.

“At this stage it’s miles too early to claim how worthy of an affect the felony set up could perhaps possess on our programme and originate of works.

“We are going to be in a position to proceed to reach archaeological investigations and preparatory works including utilities diversions all over 2024.”

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