£176m PFI bypass to unlock Kingmoor Park expansion
Transport minister Sadiq Khan today announced the Department for Transport will invest up to £158m to fund the Carlisle Northern Development Route, a new 8.3km single carriageway road which will bypass Carlisle to the north connecting the A595 at Newby West with junction 44 on the M6.
The private finance initiative road is designed to attract thousands of new jobs to the region and improve links between West Cumbria, Scotland and North East England.
It will allow the full development of a road-rail interchange at the 400-acre Kingmoor Park business site enabling expansion of the warehousing on the site.
Developer Brian Scowcroft acquired the estate in 1999 and it has since become the main commercial estate in the county.
The bypass will also remove traffic from Carlisle's centre and key routes. It was granted DfT programme entry in 2000 and had its finance package reconfirmed in 2006. All the necessary statutory procedures have been completed. As well as the new road, on which Cumbria County Council expects to start main construction in October 2009, with the road opening in April 2012, the scheme also consists of the maintenance of the new road and approximately 150kms of other local roads until 2039.
Scowcroft is advised by planning consultancy HOW Planning and Carlisle-based agents Carigiet Cowen.
No one from Kingmoor Park was immediately available for comment.
