National Highways is moving forward with site surveys for the A38 Derby junctions scheme after overcoming a second legal challenge last year.
The £250M A38 Derby junctions scheme is advancing to the next stages of the project, following the resolution of a second legal challenge last year.
National Highways is proceeding with planning and preparation, with localised site surveys planned to take place between March 2025 and March 2026, says Ground Engineering.
These surveys are designed to monitor wildlife in areas potentially affected by the construction. They will involve temporary monitoring equipment and several visits to the sites.
National Highways confirmed that Thomson Engineering will be carrying out the survey work under the instruction of Arcadis, which is undertaking a “refresh” of the scheme following the outcome of the legal challenge.
A National Highways spokesperson said: “The A38 is an important route from Birmingham to the M1 at junction 28, which suffers from congestion and delays at Derby where long distance traffic interacts with a large volume of vehicles making local journeys.
“This scheme, like many other current and future road schemes, is included in the Department for Transport’s spending review. We continue to progress the scheme while we await the results of that ongoing review.”
The Linkconnex consortium, made up of Bam Nuttall, Mace, and Aecom, was appointed to carry out the project back in 2018, but it will not be taking the project forward.
“Now the legal challenge has concluded”, says a National Highways statement, “we’re continuing to plan and prepare for the next stages of the scheme including undertaking some localised site surveys between March 2025 to March 2026. The surveys are to monitor wildlife in areas that will be impacted by the scheme. They will generally take place between 9:00am and 5:00pm, with some at dusk or dawn. Monitoring equipment may be temporarily installed, and some surveys will require multiple visits.”
In terms of the legal challenges, in November 2024, a judge ruled in favour of the project’s development consent order (DCO), which had been regranted in August 2023, following a redetermination process.
The original DCO, granted in January 2021, was quashed in March 2021 due to a successful legal challenge by the “Stop the A38 expansion” group in the High Court.
This challenge was based on “the significant loss of trees and public space, as well as the congestion caused by the four year construction period and carbon emitted – estimated to be 131,000t – during the build”, as GE’s sister title NCE reported at the time.
The reapproval of the DCO two years later prompted the second legal challenge by the same campaign group.
(Pic: Mapillary)
