Balfour Beatty has finally started work on a bypass project aimed at cutting congestion between Manchester and Sheffield that was first proposed nearly two decades ago and could cost up to £264m.
The A57 Link Roads Project will comprise two sections of road to provide a bypass around the Tameside village of Mottram.
A section of dual carriageway from junction four of the M67 will connect to the A57 at Mottram Moor. Another stretch of single carriageway will link the A57 at Mottram Moor to a new junction on the A57 in Woolley Bridge. The two sections of road and an underpass should take two years to build.
The project was first mooted nearly two decades ago, but agreeing a route for the project proved difficult with five different designs proposed by 2013, when the Manchester Evening News disclosed that £13.8m had already been spent on fees on a plan then put at £183m.
A preferred route was announced in 2017 as part of the £242m TransPennine upgrade programme. In 2020, when National Highways’ research found that around 25,000 vehicles use the A57 daily to travel through Mottram in 2020, a joint venture between Balfour Beatty and consulting civil engineers Atkins was appointed to a £108m construction contract to deliver the works.
The overall costs, including construction, design and compulsory land purchases, was then widely put at around £200m.
A start on construction work was subsequently delayed by a series of legal challenges led by the Campaign to Protect Rural England, which claimed the government had failed to consider the environmental impact, alternatives sites and the project's carbon footprint.
These were finally defeated in April 2024 and the project could now cost up to £264m. A National Highways spokesperson told Highways: 'The cost range of the scheme is £215m-£264m. The range covers all costs associated with the scheme, not just construction.'
Image credit: Shutterstock @Irene Miller
