Grizebeck road upgrade gets green light
The £15m project will see a 1.4km single carriageway built between Chapels and Grizebeck on the A595 north of Barrow, to cut journey times and boost economic growth.
Planning committees for Cumbria County Council and the Lake District National Park Authority approved the programme this week, paving the way for a start on site next year, they said.
Ahead of a construction start, Cumbria-based Story Contracting is to deliver the £1.6m detailed design stage of the two-stage design and build contract, with engineering firm WSP as its partner. the stage 2 contract will be awarded next year.
The planned route runs to the east of the existing A595, passing properties at Dove Bank and Dove Ford, before crossing the existing A595 and creating a new junction with the A595/A5092 to the west of the existing junction.
The project is intended to boost economic growth in Cumbria by reducing journey times on the A595, especially when the road is used as a diversion route when the A590 is closed between Dalton and Greenodd, the county council said.
In addition, the route should improve road safety by reducing the number and severity of collisions on the A595 and making it more convenient for freight traffic to access existing and proposed major developments, the council added.
Map showing planned improvements at the development site. Credit: Cumbria County Council
The planning consent is a “significant milestone” for the scheme, which is being funded with the help of a £2.2m Growth Fund grant from the government, said Cllr Keith Little, Cumbria’s cabinet member for highways and transport.
“It is excellent that planning permission has been granted, as it will improve the highway network along the A595, which is essential for the economic development of south and west Cumbria.
“Besides improving journey times and boosting our economy, the Grizebeck improvements will also create a safer road from Barrow to West Cumbria.”
The route is a “key component of the county’s transport infrastructure and its upgrade will provide a welcome boost to our efforts to help grow Cumbria’s economy and secure new investment opportunities,” added Alyson Armett, Cumbria Local Enterprise Partnership’s board member with responsibility for transport.
Meanwhile, another transport-related project in Cumbria opens to the public on Friday – the £2m Gooseholme Bridge in Kendal, which saw a 42-metre new bridge weighing 55 tonnes installed across the River Kent.
Story Contracting delivered this scheme, and the funding partners were Cumbria County Council. South Lakeland District Council, the Environment Agency, and Sustrans.
The 55-tonne structure was put in place in July, and opens to the public on Friday. Credit: via Cumbria County Council
In the context of the undeniable climate and ecological crises there is no question to which new road infrastructure is a positive answer.
By two-step
Very useful. Well done. Those who oppose road developments should remember that, in the future, vehicles will almost all be powered by electricity and/or hydrogen, and so will be much more environmentally friendly than public mass transport, which either needs to have massive in-built redundancy (in order to be usefully frequent) or else be intermittent and inconvenient. Technological advances almost certainly mean that the car is here to stay.
By Anonymous