Urban and Civic, the developers of the Southern Link Road, together …
Developers of a long-awaited £100m road project held an information event this week, giving residents the chance to learn more about the scheme.
Urban and Civic, the developers of the Southern Link Road, together with project partners held a public information and engagement event at the YMCA on Lord Hawke Way on Thursday.
At the event further information was shared about the project which plans to join the A46 at Farndon with the A1 at Balderton through the creation of a new four-mile long road south of Newark, with a roundabout at each end.
Southern Link Road works on Staple Lane, Balderton.
Over 250 people turned up to the sessions where information boards and representatives from the various project partners were on hand to answer any questions.
The intended completion date for the majority of the road is set for March 2025, with the final connection to the new A46 roundabout by December 2025.
Southern Link Road works on Staple Lane, Balderton.
In total several kilometres of new and improved highway will be built alongside new sewage and drainage systems, two new bridges, a culvert and roundabouts.
The road will not be duelled as traffic modelling indicated that a single carriageway was sufficient to manage the flow of traffic, roundabouts however will be widened to safely accommodate HGVs.
As well as the road, almost 900m of footpaths, 630m of cycleways and several pedestrian crossings will be built to enable people without cars in the community to more easily navigate the area.
Southern Link Road works on Staple Lane, Balderton.
The project is split into several phases, starting with the current realignment and construction of Staple Lane in Balderton with the A1, which began at the end of August.
This new 1.15km stretch of highway is scheduled for completion by the end of 2024 and will feature a new connection linking Staple Lane with the Welcome Break roundabout off the A1 in Fernwood.
This will be followed by a final period of earthworks taking place from February 2024, in preparation for the construction of the remaining stretch of road linking it with the A46.
During this next stage of development Hawton Road is scheduled for a full road closure, also starting in February, in order to realign the road on Bowbridge Lane.
The closure is expected to last anywhere between six and nine months, however, the developers are working with Nottinghamshire County Council’s highways to see what arrangements might be best for the community as these works will overlap with the road closure and works on Staple Lane.
Alongside the road’s construction, existing electrical pylons will be removed, with cables instead laid underground in the summer of next year.
The majority of the road will then be built between May 2024 and October 2025, with the final work to build a roundabout connection with the A46 scheduled for completion by the end of 2025.
The road is being built alongside the Middlebeck development, where a planned 3,500 houses will be erected to form a new community south of Newark.
Kyle Smith, Urban and Civic, said: “What we want to do is ensure that we are working with the existing community and make sure that they are informed about what is happening and when.
“We know that many are interested in the project and it is important that we have these physical sessions so that we can be seen to be present and visible.
“That is why we wanted to use a community venue close to the where the development is taking place, so that as many of the people that are interested and affected as possible can see for themselves what is being done.”
As part of the planning process and required by national policy, archaeological works have been taking place for the past few years on the project site prior to construction and are due to finish later this year.
The sheer scale of the development site offered archaeologists a rare opportunity to investigate an area far larger than would usually be possible through commercial archaeological digs, which typically are long and thin in the case of rail line construction or smaller plots for housing clusters.
These archaeological works have unearthed evidence of human activity dating back to the Neolithic period, through the Bronze Age, Iron Age, Roman, Anglo-Saxon and Norman periods and help tell a story of the people that lived in and around the Newark area.
The MP for Newark, Robert Jenrick, was at the event and said: “I went to see work on the Southern Link Road, which has begun in earnest at Middlebeck.
“This critical infrastructure investment unlocks housing, provides the access to the A46 for Middlebeck residents and eases pressure on Newark’s road.
“To say it has been a long road piecing together the £95m for this project would be an understatement, but I’m delighted that we got there — thanks to the developer Urban and Civic, Newark and Sherwood District Council, Nottinghamshire County Council and £20M from the Government’s Levelling Up Fund — which I created as Housing Secretary with the then Chancellor, Rishi Sunak, in 2021.
“The Levelling Up Fund investment provides pivotal in getting the project over the line.
“The road will be completed over the next two years and alongside it, further housing will be built in that period and in the two or three years afterwards, bringing the Middlebeck development to a conclusion.”