£70M road gets go ahead – at last

28 November 2007

A major Lincolnshire road scheme, delayed for years by political scandal, has finally got the go ahead after receiving government funding of £70M.

The new A1073 Spalding to Eye had been the county’s number one scheme since before 2000, according to Richard Wills, Lincolnshire’s director of highways and planning.

He said the scheme would improve both road safety and the local and national economy by offering better links to the east of England, while ensuring HGVs were offered a safer alternative to the current narrow and twisting route, which ran parallel to it. The existing road had a poor collision record, and many HGVs overtipped because of poor alignment, he told Surveyor. But the project has suffered a bumpy ride.

In 2002, the county council was forced to reconsider its approval of the scheme after former council leader, Jim Speechley, was accused of influencing the route to boost the value of his land. He was subsequently jailed for 18 months in 2004 for the offence. However, the final route is similar to Speechley’s preferred route, and ‘certainly follows the same corridor’, Wills said. The council hoped to make an early start, by March or April, because a contractor had already been appointed, namely Morgan Est, under Early Contractor Involvement.

Announcing the funding, local transport minister, Rosie Winterton, said the road would be a ‘faster, safer and more environmentally-friendly new route in to the east’ and would return local roads to local people. ‘It will also allow the construction of local pathways and cycle ways to encourage more walking and cycling, previously made difficult by heavy traffic,’ she said.

The scheme also includes junction improvements, provision for non-motorised users, traffic-calming along the existing A1073, and environmental-mitigation works.

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£70M road gets go ahead – at last

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