Highways England will launch a public consultation on 5 November on changes to its plans for its Sheffield to Manchester road upgrade.

It says that since its last consultation in 2018, it has carried out additional environmental surveys and monitoring, and we now wants to hear the public’s views on the most recent data, and plans for reducing the environmental impacts of the project.

The A57 Link Roads project was formerly known as the “Trans-Pennine Upgrade”, and is referred to as the “Mottram Moor Link Road and A57 Link Road project” in the Government’s second Roads Investment Strategy.

The A57 and A628 between Manchester and Sheffield currently suffer from heavy congestion, creating unreliable journeys. Highways England says this restricts potential economic growth, as the delivery of goods to businesses is often delayed and the route is not ideal for commuters, which limits employment opportunities. 

Much of this heavy traffic travels through local roads, which disrupts the lives of communities and makes it difficult and potentially unsafe for pedestrians to cross the roads. “These issues will only get worse with time if significant improvements aren’t made,” HE says.

In 2017, after a wide consultation about a number of different options, Highways England announced a package of Trans-Pennine Upgrade work, to improve the existing route connecting the M67 at Mottram in Longdendale to the M1, north of Sheffield.

It held another consultation on the proposed package of upgrades in 2018, and has since split the work into two projects which are being delivered separately, upgrades to the Westwood Roundabout near Sheffield and creation of two new link roads at the western end of the A57/A628 route.

The Consultation documentation is here. It runs until 17 December.