Works on part of a major Nottinghamshire road scheme – part-funded by the D2N2 Local Enterprise Partnership (LEP) – have now finished and been officially reopened to the public at 6pm today (September 9).
Bowbridge Lane – just south of Newark, Nottinghamshire – has recently undergone works which have included the installation of a new roundabout, street lights, a pedestrian crossing, a footpath and cycleway and a new junction with Hawton Lane. It is now open to the public and will link both parts of the wider Newark Southern Link Road (SLR) programme together when they are fully constructed.
The Newark Southern Link road will be a new four mile long road, linking the A46 (near Farndon) with the A1 (near Fernwood), with roundabout junctions at both ends. It is designed to ease traffic congestion and improve journey times along the Newark bypass, by providing an alternative A46 to A1 route and a new River Devon crossing point. It is being funded by the D2N2 LEP, Urban&Civic PLC, Newark and Sherwood District Council and the Homes and Communities Agency (HCA) – a public body sponsored by the Department for Communities and Local Government.
D2N2 is the Local Enterprise Partnership (LEP) for Derbyshire and Nottinghamshire and works to grow its areas economy, with the aim of creating 55,000 new jobs in ten years (2013-2023). As part of its mission to grow the D2N2 economy, it has an allocation of Local Growth Funding (LGF) from Government, which can be used for projects in its area which will create jobs and attract investment.
The Newark Southern Link Road is one such project and in November of 2015, the D2N2’s Infrastructure and Investment Board (IIB) agreed £7million for the scheme, confirming this amount earlier this week (September 7). When complete, the Newark Southern Link Road will open up around 278 hectares of land, adjacent to the southern edge of Newark’s built up area, for housing and employment use. This area has planning permission for up to 3,150 houses (including affordable housing), two retail and commercial centres, a 60-bed care home, two primary schools, community buildings, a medical centre, 50 hectares of mixed use commercial development and landscaped green community spaces.
Phase One of the Newark Southern Link road is due for completion in around two months time and will see the eastbound spur of the roundabout opened, providing a connection to Staple Lane and improving access to the A1. Phase two, which will run west and connect to the A46, is currently being designed and is set to begin next year, with the entire road due to be completed before March 2020.
David Ralph, Chief Executive of the D2N2 LEP, said:
“Good transport connections are not only vital for business, they improve access to potential development land, which in turn makes those spaces viable for businesses and housing developers looking for opportunities.
“D2N2’s Local Growth Fund allocation of £7million for the Newark Southern Link Road project, along with contributions from Urban&Civic and other partners, provides an unprecedented opportunity for the area to fund a strategic approach to building the necessary infrastructure to promote economic growth and create new jobs, which will benefit all our communities.”
Richard Coppell, Project Director for Urban&Civic added;
“We’re pleased to be reopening Bowbridge Lane and enabling people to get back to using this stretch of road and we thank them for their patience whilst this work has been underway.
“The transformation of the road will become apparent as people reroute back along Bowbridge Lane and they will see the scale and significance of the work that has been undertaken over the past year.
“They will also be able to see progress on the SLR running east from the new roundabout towards Staple Lane as well as the new Sustrans bridge and on-going landscaping and planting.”
During the Autumn, as well as opening the first phase of the SLR, Urban&Civic will also be announcing the first housebuilder to start on the urban extension with homes expected to begin in early 2017.
For more information on the above release, please contact Sam Burbage, Social Media and Marketing Officer at the D2N2 LEP, on 01159 578254, or by email:sam.burbage@d2n2lep.org
