North Yorkshire County Council will begin work next week to complete the first phase of the construction of the Bedale bypass.
Construction began in February on the bypass which is designed to reduce traffic flow by half through Bedale, Leeming Bar and Aiskew . Traffic flow on the existing road is approximately 14,000 vehicles a day, which causes considerable congestion.
The Bedale bypass, which is expected to be open to traffic in autumn 2016, will be approximately three miles long, from Northallerton Road, on the eastern outskirts of Leeming Bar, to a new junction on the A684 near Bedale Golf Club.
It crosses the A1(M) approximately at its midpoint, where it will connect with the recently completed junction as part of the Highways Agency’s A1 Dishforth to Barton upgrade.
The county council will begin work next week to tie-in the existing A684 Northallerton to Bedale road with the new roundabouts to complete the first phase.
The contractor will begin at the Bedale roundabout on November 9th and the Northallerton roundabout on November 23rd. The majority of the work will be carried out under off-peak lights to minimise disruption to the travelling public.
Traffic management will not be in operation every day and it is expected that the roundabouts will be open to traffic in December though some finishing works will be necessary after this.
“The Bedale bypass has been long-awaited and our contractors are progressing well with the works,” said County Councillor Don Mackenzie, North Yorkshire’s Executive Member for Highways. “We are all looking forward to the road’s completion next year.
“The construction of the roundabouts at either end of the bypass was always going to cause some disruption but the contractors have made every effort to keep this to a minimum. The roundabouts have been constructed off-road and the work that will start next week to tie the new roundabouts into the existing A684 will be carried out through off-peak traffic management, again to cause least disruption.”