Funding lined up for Blackburn link road
A road to link Blackburn town centre with Junction 6 of the M65 looks set to go ahead with the Lancashire Enterprise Partnership looking to approve a £3.4m funding package this week.
The Furthergate link road is proposed to start at the Red Lion roundabout and run through to the A678 past Kenyon Haulage, joining the existing road network near the existing Furthergate junction. It will also link to Gorse Street via a signal junction.
The road has been proposed with the current network described as being “close to capacity” and experiencing high volumes of traffic leading to congestion. The council also said the new link road would open up new areas to development, particularly industrial sites along the river Blakewater.
Working with consultants Jacobs and Capita, Blackburn with Darwen Council has submitted a full business case for the new road, which is expected to cost £4m in total.
The LEP is expected to sign of £3.4m of Growth Deal funding at a meeting this week to support the scheme, with the remainder coming from Blackburn with Darwen Council, covering around 10% of the scheme’s total cost.
Construction of the road is expected to begin in June 2018 and run until May 2019.
Won’t this reduce the benefits of the Pennine Way scheme whereby improved public transport journey times may have encouraged modal shift away from the car?
I hope this scheme includes some form of a Park and Ride to protect the interests of the public transport investment in the town.
By Walrus
This will open up a new employment area for Blackburn..enhance access to Tesco superstore ..and allow the fantastic Imperial Mill to be fully seen. As it’s mainly and industrial/Tesco access road should actually help the speedy travel into BLACKBURNs growing town centre
By Graham Burgess