No ‘golden arrow’ for Lincoln’s congestion problem

Lincolnshire County Council’s highways chief said Lincoln’s Eastern Bypass will be “part of the solution” to the city’s congestion woes, but there is no “golden arrow” for the problem.

Councillor Richard Davies, executive member for highways at the authority, said the £120 million single-carriage way will help to remove traffic from the city that “does not need to be there”.

But he added that the authority needs to look at “sustainable transport methods”, such as cycling and walking, in order to tackle the problem.

The project is expected to be complete in May 2020 and will form part of a complete ring road around Lincoln in effort to relieve traffic.

Construction of the bypass off Washingborough Road, Lincoln. Picture: Steve Smailes.

Contractors Galliford Try are carrying out the works including “milestone” parts of the scheme such as the four new roundabouts, two bridges and 7.5km stretch of new road.

Now, Councillor Davies has said that, when complete, the bypass will form part of the solution to the city’s ongoing problems with congestion.

“We need to be looking at how we get people out of cars if we are realistic about solving congestion,” he said.

“But, it is certainly part of the solution for making things easier and in particular it moves traffic out of Lincoln that doesn’t want to be there.”

Lincolnshire county councillor, Richard Davies, at the Lincoln Eastern Bypass construction site. Picture: Steve Smailes.

He added that there is no perfect solution to the city’s congestion issue, but that “alternatives” need to be considered.

“More generally we need to be looking at ways of ensuring that people can get around and the answer is not necessarily the car,” Councillor Davies said.

“We need to see if we can invest more in public transport and if we can do more to get sustainable transport methods such as cycling and walking.”

Meanwhile, Councillor Davies said the bypass is “on track” to be complete and open by May next year.

Lincoln Eastern Bypass. Picture: Lincolnshire County Council.

But, last week the project was hit by the collapse of sub-contractor, Hawk Ltd, who was tasked with carrying out earthworks for the scheme.

The firm, which is based in Shropshire has more than 40 years experience, appointed administrators last Monday and blamed the collapse of Carillion partly for its demise.

Councillor Davies said the collapse of Hawk would “undoubtedly” have an impact on the project but not a “significant” one.

No detail has been given on the length of possible delays or on identity of the new contractor.

The county council has said it is working with Galliford Try to “mitigate” the impact of the collapse.

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