'On Friday 18th September the A417 ‘Missing Link' was no more!' - so said Tony Gee and Partners, who provided support to contractor Kier during construction for this £500m project designed to ease congestion and improve journey safety.
The whole of the new A417 Missing Link alignment is now open to traffic, although there will be limited lanes and temporary speed restrictions while the remaining works are completed over the coming months.
The new road layout between Gloucester and Cirencester allows drivers to travel the A417 in an uninterrupted journey from junction 11a of the M5 through to Cirencester, Swindon and the M4, without having navigate 'the infamous Air Balloon roundabout'.
Work will continue until Spring 2027 at least when additional lanes will be opened and two new bridges installed, one of which will be the largest environmental crossing in the country, Tony Gee and Partners said.
The scheme has been under way since 2023, with Kier Infrastructure as the contractor on behalf of client National Highways.
Karen Duffett, stakeholder manager at National Highways, said on social media: 'Still lots of work to do to finish dualling the road but this represents a significant milestone and step forward for people travelling in / around Gloucestershire and between the M4 & M5.
'The scale of the A417 project is epic and there will be more good things to come as this project moves towards full open for traffic and completion. Well done to all those involved in making this happen.'
Gavin Jones, project director for Kier, told the BBC it had built a 'new Crickley Hill' with a reduced gradient to help larger vehicles.
'If you're coming from the Gloucester direction, you'll come up this new stretch of Crickley Hill that we've just built, you'll just go up the hill and you can continue on down to Cirencester,' he told BBC Radio Gloucestershire.
'I am extremely pleased to say no-one will ever be needing to negotiate the Air Balloon Roundabout again. You won't be getting stuck in that place any longer, you'll be flowing straight through on the new road that we've built and that's going to reduce people's journeys.'
