‘Goodbye Flyover, Hello Future’ – Is the end finally in sight for Gateshead’s white elephant?

Once one of the busiest roads in the North East, the view from atop the Gateshead Flyover now resembles something from a post-apocalyptic film

17:57, 20 Mar 2026

Beneath the Gateshead Flyover, where heavy steel props are being installed ahead of demolition(Image: Iain Buist/Newcastle Chronicle)

For 15 months the Gateshead Flyover[1] has stood empty and crumbling, as the people of Tyneside wait for the day when it is finally demolished. Closed off because of safety fears in December 2024, it has since become a symbol of decline and its looming presence a source of immense frustration.

Standing atop the abandoned viaduct during the Thursday afternoon rush hour[2], the sight is quite surreal. For decades, this would have been one of the busiest roads in the North East - carrying tens of thousands of vehicles in and out of the heart of Newcastle and Gateshead[3].

Now the scene resembles something from a post-apocalyptic film, or perhaps the early days of the Covid pandemic.

A sprawling 900m highway just a stone's throw from a bustling city centre, it is now silent and desolate.[4]

Martin Gannon surveys the state of what he has repeatedly lamented as a road "from nowhere to nowhere". Clad in bright yellow high vis garb, the Labour[5] council leader tells the Local Democracy Reporting Service: "I was 10 or 11 when this thing first opened and it is only in later life when you think 'what the hell is it there for?'

Council Leader Martin Gannon on the Gateshead flyover, which is to be demolished.(Image: Iain Buist/Newcastle Chronicle)

"I know the area because I live a mile away. There was a plan to build a motorway across the top of Saltwell Park to join onto this, to join onto a bridge, to join onto what was going to be the Central Motorway East.

That never happened and by 1972 this was a white elephant. It should never have been built, to be honest."

After months of uncertainty and mounting exasperation as the promised removal of the flyover has been pushed back[6], we are now promised that a change is imminent. Signs are being erected around the concrete highway reading: "Goodbye Flyover.

Hello Future."

Demolition is now firmly scheduled to start in April and will last an estimated six months. Trees have been chopped down to make way for the removal work, the neighbouring Computer House office block should finally be gone in the next couple of weeks, and dozens of heavyweight steel props are being installed beneath the road in order to stop it collapsing while 'nibbling' machinery gradually eats away at either side of the 1970s structure.

Coun Gannon, whose administration faces an enormous challenge to retain power at May's local elections, had once hoped the flyover would be gone by now - having said last March that it would be down "within a year". He calls the process of reaching this point "hugely complex and enormously frustrating".

The veteran politician said: "We can definitely say that we will make sure this structure is taken down safely.

Yes , the length of time is frustrating. I would have liked to have started, certainly, the back end of last year. But it was important that we got these things right."

Demolition of the Gateshead Flyover should begin in April(Image: Iain Buist/Newcastle Chronicle)

But he cautions that the October end date for the demolition is far from certain at this point.

Coun Gannon added: "We are aiming that we get the site cleared by October, but that is with a fair wind. We don't know precisely and as we begin to take this structure apart I would not be surprised if there were some other surprises that come to hit us."

Scott Beattie, operations manager at demolition contractors BAM, admits the flyover will be "really difficult" to take down. He describes hundreds of steel cable strands running through the length of the structure as like "pulled elastic bands", which will have to be gradually cut through over the coming months - making the flyover weaker and weaker in the process.

On and off ramps to the central section of the viaduct will be the first to go, followed by the central section of the flyover itself.

Demolition will then move to the section of the flyover directly above the Sunderland[7] Road bus lane, and then further south towards Five Bridges roundabout around June.

BAM Operation Manager Scott Beattie on the Gateshead flyover, which is to be demolished.(Image: Iain Buist/Newcastle Chronicle)

Some works will take place around the Park Lane roundabout in May in preparation for that area of the highway to be removed, but the actual demolition there will be during the summer. The last section of the work, in the early autumn, will be on the areas directly above the underground Tyne and Wear Metro tunnels.

Two massive screens are soon to be installed to protect tenants of Aidan House and the car park at the southern end of the High Street, next to Matalan, and more will be needed elsewhere as the demolition continues. It is hoped that removing the flyover can pave the way for a long-awaited regeneration of the surrounding area.

There has been good news recently, with funding awarded to help push forward a redevelopment of Gateshead's Old Town Hall.

Coun Gannon believes there is a better future to come.

He said: "I would describe Gateshead as being very much on the cusp.

Gateshead will change radically over the next 10, 15, 20 years - it will be a better place for people to work and to live their lives."

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References

1. ^ Flyover (www.chroniclelive.co.uk)
2. ^ atop the abandoned viaduct during the Thursday afternoon rush hour (www.chroniclelive.co.uk)
3. ^ Gateshead (www.chroniclelive.co.uk)
4. ^ now silent and desolate. (www.chroniclelive.co.uk)
5. ^ Labour (www.chroniclelive.co.uk)
6. ^ months of uncertainty and mounting exasperation as the promised removal of the flyover has been pushed back (www.chroniclelive.co.uk)
7. ^ Sunderland (www.chroniclelive.co.uk)
8. ^ Here's more information (www.chroniclelive.co.uk)
9. ^ clicking here (www.google.com)