After years of sustained pressure, the long-awaited upgrade to the accident blackspot and economic bottleneck that is the A417 near Birdlip in Gloucestershire has passed another significant milestone.
Kier Highways has been awarded the £460 million contract by National Highways to design and deliver the upgrade to the A417 between the?Brockworth?bypass and Cowley roundabout in Gloucestershire.
It means the remaining stretch of single-lane carriageway sandwiched between two stretches of major arterial dual carriageway will finally be removed.
A united Gloucestershire voice led by the county council has been pressuring the Government for years to deliver the upgrade which business group GFirst LEP has called ‘key to unlocking the prosperity of the county’.
Paul Baker, project director for Kier Highways, which has offices in Worcester and Manchester, said: ‘Delivering highways infrastructure is vital to the UK is Kier Highways’ purpose.
‘We look forward to working with National Highways and our supply chain partners to deliver this critical infrastructure project to improve the connectivity of the strategic road network.’
As well as delivering faster journey times in and out of Gloucestershire to Oxford, Swindon and the M4/M5 Motorway, it is hoped the work will also remove a deadly accident blackspot.
Agreeing a scheme has been far from straightforward, because of cost and because of the site is within the Cotswolds Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty.
The project will see Kier Highways and its team, Volker Fitzpatrick, Arup, Tony Gee and RPS design and construct 3.4 miles of new dual carriageway.
