January 23, 2023 3.00 pm This story is over 19 months old

Lincolnshire County Council committed to road projects amid £60m budget increase

Fears that delaying the project would increase costs even more
Detailed plan for the North Hykeham Relief Road. | Image: LCC

Senior officers at Lincolnshire County Council have reaffirmed their commitment to some of the region’s major road projects despite more than £60m of extra costs expected.

Highways Committee members on Monday were told the Grantham Southern Relief Road Bridge and North Hykeham Relief Road would need more than £60m extra combined moving forward.

Lincoln ward Councillor Thomas Dyer said the Hykeham bypass went through his patch.

“Can you confirm that despite the funding pressures, LCC are committed to delivering the dual carriageway bypass and we’re not going to cut any corners in any way?”

He added: “Criticism you often see in the media of LCC delivering these schemes is that the price tag is going to increase because it takes us, you know, 600,000 years to start the project. Can you assure the committee that really we’re going full throttle to deliver this as soon as possible?”

Sam Edwards, the authority’s Head of Highways Infrastructure, confirmed the increase would be in line with previous estimations.

“To give absolute assurance this is a dual carriageway scheme… we’re hoping it won’t take several thousand years to deliver and we are broadly on programme,” he said

He confirmed the next major step would be to prepare for a planning application to be submitted in September.

However, he explained some schemes, including Spalding Western Relief Road Section One, would be put back to future years in a bid to reallocate funding.

Councillor Eddie Strengiel asked for commitment to convert the A46 along the Birchwood border towards Newark into a double carriageway.

Mr Edwards said it was a “clear aspiration” to improve the network but stressed that this particular highway was not an LCC managed network, but National Highways.

“We continue to canvas and have done for a number of years… but like everything at the moment capital funding is strained and whether it sits within their programme is not really in our gift to know.”

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