Highways officials are preparing to open Melton Mowbray’s new £134m bypass. Leicestershire County Council said it hoped the 4.4-mile (7.1km) route around the north and east of the town would open to vehicles in about three months, following three years of construction, reports the BBC.
The project has involved building six new roundabouts, four bridges and diverting a river about 100 metres (328ft) from its course.
“We moved the River Eye, and that might surprise people,” said the authority’s assistant director of highways and transport, Janna Walker. “It might not seem the obvious choice but we needed to build a bridge over the river and that was close to some very high voltage cables.
“We had to raise the bridge structure up and that would mean working too close to the power cables.
“Moving those power cables would not only be extremely expensive but also involve disruption to power for people in Melton – and we didn’t want to be that unpopular. Moving the river was actually the easiest option.”
“One of the biggest problems we have had recently is the weather,” Walker added. “We are so close and we are really excited, but it feels like it has rained every day this year.
“We are getting there but it does slow us down. We have about 12 weeks’ work programmed but we do need it to be dry.”
Engineers also had to construct a bridge, with a span of 50m, to take the road over a passenger and freight railway line.
The final cost of the scheme is expected to be about £134m – nearly twice the original budget of £63.5m. The project has been jointly funded by the council, the government, and developers who plan to build 4,500 homes in the area in the long term.
“There are several phases in building a big road like this,” Walker said. “We built a budget based on the information we had and that original budget was set 10 years ago.
“A lot has happened since then in terms of the market and inflation. We’ve had steel and other materials go up in price and we have had significant weather events to deal with.”
(Picture: Galliford Try)
