A1(M) Leeming - Barton

[c2R]

I agree that it makes sense to close the gaps now, given the fatalities that have occurred and the likelihood of more happening; even if the road will be replaced within a decade.

...that said, the gaps at Wittering and Water Newton further south seem to me to be just as dangerous - especially being just north of the Peterborough stretch of A1(M), and there are no current plans to replace these as far as I am aware.

[jcb336]

I've received this invitation today-so it seems things are moving:-

"I would like to invite you to a public information exhibition for the A1 Leeming to Barton improvement project.

The exhibition will give you the opportunity to see our plans to improve the A1 and for you to ask any questions you may have about the improvement scheme and how it will affect you. Members of the Highways Agency project team, and representatives from our design agents, will be available to discuss the project with you and answer any questions you may have.

The exhibition will take place at the Bridge House Hotel, Catterick Bridge, Richmond, North Yorkshire DL10 7PE on Friday 15 February from 2pm to 8pm and Saturday 16 February from 10am to 4pm.

I look forward to seeing you there".

[wrinkly]

It may include the first public sight of the amended side roads proposals. Or, reading the article below, it may not.

There's nothing about the exhibition on the HA website yet but there may be by the time it's due to happen.

There may be another exhibition venue, maybe Leeming.

A Google "news" search finds this from the Northern Echo almost three weeks ago.

A1 upgrade to include local access roads

5:49pm Wednesday 16th January 2013 By Joe Willis, Regional Chief Reporter

HIGHWAY officials have confirmed that two access roads will be built beside an upgraded stretch of the A1.

Confirmation that side roads will be created between Leeming and Catterick and Scotch Corner and Barton was last night welcomed by community leaders.

The Government announced last month that it was pressing ahead with the upgrade of the A1 to motorway standard between Leeming and Barton after cancelling the scheme in 2010.

It was feared the original plans signed off following a three-week planning inquiry would be changed under the new proposal and the local access roads would not be included.

However, the Highways Agency has confirmed that the route of the new motorway will follow previous plans – and the local access roads will be built.

Responding to the announcement, North Yorkshire county councillor Michael Heseltine, member for Richmondshire North, said: “I am very pleased to see that work is on-going to include a new local access road between Leeming and Catterick South and Scotch Corner and Barton.

“It looks as if the concerns which some of us expressed at the public enquiry six-years-ago have been taken on board.

“This really is an exciting development which is long overdue, and is great news both locally and for the North-East, and it opens up great prospects for the future.”

The Highways Agency said design work was still being carried out for the local access roads between Leeming and Catterick and Scotch Corner and Barton, and the exact routes had not yet been decided.

A spokesman added: “The route of the motorway, and the local access roads between Catterick and Scotch Corner, will be in accordance with the original proposals presented at the public inquiry in 2006.

“More details of the proposals will be announced over the next few months.”

Draft supplementary side road orders and compulsory purchase orders are due to be issued later this year, officials said.

The work will be completed by the same contractors, Morgan Sindall and Carillion, which upgraded the A1 from Dishforth to Leeming.

Construction is due to start in 2014 and take three years.

There are a couple of contradictions in the wording of the article, but the exhibition may clarify things.

[jcb336]

Thanks for that wrinkly. The web site used to be a very reliable source of up to date information, but it seems not to be anymore.

[wrinkly]

16 gaps closed from 8 Feb.

Didn't realise there were so many.

[Keiji]

Shedule?

Really?

[NICK 647063]

So it seems every gap is closing, well it will in the short term prevent many accidents until the motorway upgrade next year!

[Repmobile]

I see from Hansard that a Parliamentary Question was answered on 4th Feb 2013 on the subject of the costs associated with reinstating the A1 Leeming to Barton upgrade. This followed a written question submitted by Maria Eagle MP (Labour MP for Garston and Halewood Constituency in Merseyside). Reply by Stephan Hammond MP (Conservative MP for Wimbledon and Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Transport).

Question and answer as follows:

A1 North Yorkshire


Maria Eagle: To ask the Secretary of State for Transport:

(1) how much his Department has spent on compulsory reacquisition of land needed for the A1 Leeming to Barton upgrade since the Government's decision to reinstate that project; [140502]

(2) how much his Department had spent on preliminary plans for the A1 Leeming to Barton upgrade prior to the decision to end the project following the 2010 comprehensive spending review; [140503]

(3) how much his Department has spent on (a) costs for design, (b) public consultation and (c) the purchase of properties and land for the A1 Leeming to Barton upgrade to date; [140524]

(4) how much of the funding allocated for the A1 Leeming to Barton upgrade will be spent on (a) construction costs and (b) property management; [140596]

(5) how much his Department has spent on the retendering process following the Government's decision to reinstate the A1 Leeming to Barton upgrade; [140597]

(6) how much his Department has spent on preliminary plans to upgrade the A1 Leeming to Barton following its decision to reinstate the project. [140600]



Stephen Hammond:

The Highways Agency has not acquired any land for the A1 Leeming to Barton scheme since the project was reinstated.

The amount spent on preliminary plans for the A1 Leeming to Barton scheme prior to the decision to cancel the project in 2010 was £19 million.

To date, the Highways Agency has spent:

(a) £12.3 million on developing the section of the A1 between Leeming to Barton.

4 Feb 2013 : Column 64W

(b) £199,000 on public consultation. These costs were incurred when the Leeming to Barton section was part of the wider A1 Dishforth to Barton upgrade.

(c) £4 million on the purchase of property and land between Leeming and Barton.

The current expected construction cost, based on the last approved estimate for the A1 Leeming to Barton upgrade is £206 million. This cost will be refined as design progresses.

None of the funding allocated for the A1 Leeming to Barton upgrade will be spent on property management as those costs are not set against the project. The HA manages its property as a portfolio to achieve the most efficient and cost effective contract.

The agency has not incurred retendering costs as a consequence of the project's reinstatement. An Early Contractor Involvement contract was awarded in 2004 for the A1 Dishforth to Barton upgrade. Although the contractor was instructed to suspend work on the Leeming to Barton section after the 2010 spending review announcement, the contract remained as work continued on the Dishforth to Leeming section. Following the autumn statement in 2012, 5 December 2012, Official Report, columns 871-82, the contractor was instructed to recommence work on the Leeming to Barton section.

Costs expended on developing A1 Leeming to Barton since the autumn statement in December 2012 are £220,000.

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

http://www.publications.parliament.uk/p ... 2051000011

Pete

[jcb336]

The new website has now appeared here.

[wrinkly]

Thanks!

When I read your post about the invitation I misread the location of the exhibition as Richmond. I now see that's just the post town and it's actually in Catterick. That's quite central to the section, so I withdraw my suggestion that there'll be a second venue.

Edit: There's also a press release which is a bit more informative than the scheme page.

[NICK 647063]

I notice on the new Leeming Barton page it states the A1 carries between 59,000 and 69,000 VPD when before it was around 50,000 has there been a increase since the section south opened?

[wrinkly]

I've been to the exhibition but wasn't able to stay long or talk to any HA or designer's people.

On the way I saw that all the gaps are closed with cones.

Detailed plans were on show but no leaflets you could take away except one about the archaeology of Roman Dere Street. I assume this means that the new orders are not yet quite ready for formal draft publication. I've been to a fair few road exhibitions but this was the first one without a "What happens next" board to explain where they're up to in the statutory processes.

I think the mainline is unchanged from the version that went to inquiry in 2006 but the side roads are different. There are two extra lengths of LAR, from Leeming Bar to Low Street and from Scotch Corner to Kneeton, each requiring a skew bridge over the motorway where it swaps sides, and minor consequential changes such as the omission (I think) of Tickergate Lane overbridge.

Going north from Leeming the motorway is at first online of the A1 with the LAR on its west side. Thoroughway House near the Leeming Bar west roundabout is demolished so the LAR can be reasonably straight.

Near the present junction with the westward side road Lords Lane there is a newly proposed skew bridge for the LAR to cross over the A1(M) from W to E.

From the present junction with the eastward side road Low Street, to the north end of the proposed Catterick Central junction, the A1(M) is to the west of the present A1, and the LAR uses one carriageway (mostly northbound) of the present A1. This is as in the previous proposal. Indeed I think there are no changes now until Scotch Corner.

The present Catterick South junction bridge is demolished but there is a new bridge over the motorway to the west of it.

I think other existing overbridges in the area are demolished.

From the proposed Catterick Central junction to the existing Catterick North junction there is no separate new LAR. The existing road through Catterick serves as the non-motorway route.

The existing Catterick North junction stops being a junction but its bridge survives to connect to the new LAR which from there to Scotch Corner and beyond is on the west side.

The LAR has a roundabout junction with the westward A6108 and then incorporates the existing A6108 dual carriageway (which was once the A1, that's why it's dual) to Scotch Corner.

The Scotch Corner roundabout and three of the four slip roads are unchanged.

The LAR now continues north of Scotch Corner. The first bit of the northbound on-slip becomes a 2-way S2.

Two-thirds of the way along the on-slip there's a new roundabout. The remainder of the present on-slip becomes the new on-slip, and joins the mainline at the existing taper.

From the new roundabout the LAR follows a westward curve until just south of the existing Kneeton Hall overbridge (which is demolished). Here there is a new skew overbridge to carry the LAR to the E side of the motorway where it ties into the existing Kneeton Lane.

[jcb336]

Following on from Wrinkly I went to the exhibition today. I managed to speak to two reps of the contractors. They are hoping to publish the supplementary orders in April. The scheme for the mainline is as published in 2005. As wrinkly says the additions are the additional LARs. The Leeming to Catterick road conceded by the HA at the 2006 inquiry and the SC to Barton road recommended by the Inspector. The reps said they had liaised closely with the landowners and hoped there would be no need for a further inquiry. They hope to begin preparatory site works in December with a view to construction starting in Spring next year.
I took some photos of the plan which are too big to upload here. I'll try and figure something out

[MatthewB6323]

As someone who uses this section of the A1 several times a year, but lives too far away to visit the exhibition, I hope you can find a way of posting the photos. One of the image-hosting sites must be able to deal with them?

[jcb336]

one, two, three, four, five, six, seven.

These are in the order I took them-which depended on where people were standing at the time. There were two plans which were not oriented to the compass the same way. The join is north of Catterick. Anyway I hope you can sequence the whole thing north to south. I would have done it myself but it took me long enough to figure out how to do it this far. I took one picture twice to try to show the detail better, and then my battery decided to fail.

[jcb336]

To repeat my post from the earlier thread:-

Over seven years ago (yes seven!) Roadtripper_Ian took his camera to the consultation exhibition at the Scotch Corner Hotel and the photos are in the gallery. The pages before and after also have relevant images. As wrinkly says the Scotch Corner junction had been planned to be unchanged with D2M through the bridges.

[jcb336]

And as I also said on the earlier thread, the 2008 Inspector's report and the decision letter are here.

[Duncan]

I've just returned (well last night actually) from the tour of the Pennine Tower at Forton Services, organised by Johnathan 404. Me being me, I decided to go east having picked up my hire car from Manchester Airport rather than going straight up to Cumbria (I'm a Sabristi, what else would you expect?), and went along the M62 to the M1, then up the A1(M) and A1 to Scotch Corner, across via the A66, the A685 to Tebay, before going via the back road to Junction 37, before finally retiring to the Days Inn at Killington Lake. A great trip, apart from the fact that I had got past the A685 junction before I realised that there was a jam ahead (I had originally intended to go up to Penrith before heading down the M6), which cost me nearly half an hour. I noticed that the gaps between Leeming Bar and Scotch Corner have already been filled, as reported by Wrinkly above (traffic cones with "Gap Closed Ahead" signs), and at Leeming Bar there is an enclosed site marked "A1 D2B". So even if they are not starting actual construction until 2014, they are obviously getting the preliminaries sorted. By the way, heading up the M1 to Hook Moor, the erroneous signs saying "Wetherby A1", which I reported on a couple of years ago on the original thread, are still there.

Another thing; I stopped at Leeming Bar Services and, provided they carry out improvements to the access roads - separating cars, HGVs and so on, I think it could do a pretty good job as it is now. Sure, certain parts would need rebuilding - the toilets are very small, for example, and I'm not sure the disabled access is that good, but the cafe is as big as those at most MSAs, it has a McDonalds, and there is plenty of room for a coffee bar. Are they planning to completely rebuild Junction 52? Because the services are currently only just off the junction, and I seem to remember something being said about having to travel a long way.

[Debaser]

Hate to say it, but the site cabins have never been removed...there's 'finished' and finished. The mainline's OK, the LAR...nearly.

[wrinkly]

heading up the M1 to Hook Moor, the erroneous signs saying "Wetherby A1", which I reported on a couple of years ago on the original thread, are still there.

Similarly at the M1/A1(M) southbound bifurcation the signs still say A1, not A1(M), or did quite recently.