16/7/2009 - CNDR gets the green light : Cumbria County Council

Major construction work can now begin on a long-awaited new western bypass for Carlisle.

The go-ahead for the Carlisle Northern Development Route (CNDR) has been confirmed now that Cumbria County Council and Connect CNDR have signed the contract which cements a 30-year partnership.

Connect CNDR will build the new 8.25km (5.13 mile) single-carriageway by-pass which runs from the A595/U1161 junction near Newby West, skirts the western edge of Carlisle, crosses the River Eden and the West Coast Mainline railway before joining the M6 at junction 44. The road will cut journey times through Carlisle and also reduce by thousands the number of HGVs and cars travelling through the city centre.

Connect CNDR will also take on the maintenance of a further 148km (92 miles) of existing roads in North Cumbria, namely parts of the A7, A594, A595, A596, A689 and the A6071. From the general public's perspective, the handover will be seamless and Cumbria County Council will remain the single point of contact for the public for these roads, with the Highways Hotline still covering the whole of the county council’s 4,784-mile road network.

The total value of the scheme is £176m.

The deal has been made possible thanks to Department for Transport approval of £158m worth of PFI (Private Finance Initiative) funding for the scheme. PFI (also known as PPP, or Public Private Partnership) works by the contractor financing the construction of the new road, and then recovering the capital cost over the 30-year life of the contract.

The combination of building a new road and a contract to maintain existing roads is the first PFI deal of its kind for a local authority in the UK. The reason why it is a combination of both is that the new build by itself would not be a large enough project to qualify for PFI funding.

Now that the contract has been awarded, work can continue at full pace to build a temporary bridge alongside Kingmoor Railway Bridge so that the main structure can be demolished at Christmas 2009.

Connect CNDR will take on responsibility for its part of the existing road network from October 1st 2009 and construction will begin on the northern end of the new road on October 19th 2009. The northern end of the new road will be open by August 2011, with the whole road open by April 2012.

£11m worth of preparatory work has already been carried out, including a connection into the existing roundabout at junction 44 of the M6. All of the necessary ecological surveys and tree felling work has already been carried out so that the main construction can begin as soon as possible. A small area of the new road’s route is still undergoing archaeological work on some Mesolithic features, but the work programme has been formulated to fit round this.

Cllr Jim Buchanan, Leader of Cumbria County Council, said:

"CNDR is Cumbria’s top priority major transport scheme and we are delighted that the scheme has reached financial close. The new road will be an essential component of the regeneration of West Cumbria. It will help traffic flow west from the M6 and also considerably relieve the number of vehicles passing through Carlisle city centre. On behalf of the county council, I’d like to thank the Department for Transport for continuing to support the scheme and recognising the vital part it will play in this part of the country."

Cllr Stewart Young, Deputy Leader of Cumbria County Council, said:

"Getting to where we are now has been an enormous challenge and it seems that hurdles have popped up almost every step of the way. But we’ve managed to overcome a public enquiry, the redesign caused by the 2005 floods, archaeological finds, and the global financial crisis which affected support for construction schemes all over the world. We have been working on this for around a decade, so I am delighted that we will soon have a new road which will revolutionise the way people travel around Carlisle."

Another benefit from the new road is that it will improve links to Kingmoor Park, making it a key linchpin of regeneration in North Cumbria and potentially creating over 5,000 jobs.

Tony Goddard, Chief Executive of Kingmoor Park Properties, said:

"This new road will not only open up the business access of Carlisle, it will open up the whole of north west Cumbria. The positive impact that this will have for economic development will be massive."