Contractor search starts for M55 link road
Lancashire County Council has opened the tender for a main contractor as it seeks to deliver the Heyhouses link road.
One of a raft of projects given support in October 2017 by the Department for Transport, which pledged £5m to the scheme, the £16.8m contract is for a link road to be built, improving access from Lytham St Annes and Blackpool to the M55..
The proposed link road is to open up development sites close to junction 4 of the M55. It would connect the existing roundabout at Whitehills Road to the north with Heyhouses Lane near the Cypress Point development site to the south.
In making a case for county council funding of £1.7m in 2017, LCC said that the road would provide significantly improved access between Lytham St Annes and the M55, relieving congestion on smaller local roads, and supporting the commercial viability of local housing and business development sites.
A key development cited was a site in the ownership of Lytham housebuilder Kensington Developments, where up to 1,150 new homes could be delivered.
The council said that in addition, Blackpool Airport Enterprise Zone and Whitehills Business Park would benefit from the improved infrastructure. Roads in the area including parts of Wild Lane and Moss Road were closed in 2013.
Kensington is lined up to make a Section 106 contribution, with other parties involved including Fylde Borough Council, the Lancashire Enterprise Partnership and Highways England, which is committing £9m.
A tenderer’s workshop is to be held on Friday 11 January, which all tenderers are recommended to attend. The deadline for those wishing to tender to express their interest is 25 January.
The ongoing saga of this link road is perhaps one of the most frustrating issues ever to befall the residents and business`s of Lytham and St Anne`s. The choker-blocking of the Queensway can be minding numbing and so defeating at times. The question on every bodies minds are, just when is this project going to get on the road. When just when, when when????
By Ron Coey
The new road can’t come a day too soon…for residents, getting out of Division Lane is almost impossible at times and due to the congested Queensway. The question is when will the link road arrive??? it’s all very well building thousands of houses but you gotta have the road network.
By Mike Rawestron
Getting rediculous now. I have to add 20 mins most mornings to go round the queensway. When there are insignificant roadworks as at April 2019 on common edge the whole place is gridlocked. Get it sorted! Enough is enough!
By Stewart Watson