A51 Tarvin to Chester improvement scheme

The project seeks to deliver a series of major junction and roundabout improvements that will see:

• additional lanes at the Stamford Bridge traffic lights, the widening of the existing bridge over the River Gowy and capacity improvements at Tarvin roundabout
• changes to the road layout, widening, lane markings, new controlled crossing-point at Hare Lane/Littleton Lane and better signage
• new crossing points and improved facilities for pedestrians, cyclists and bus users are also planned

Improvements

The project is expected to improve travel times and increase resilience and reliability of the highway network in the area. This indirectly supports regeneration and inward investment of the neighbouring areas, such as Chester Northgate and Chester Business Quarter.

It is expected to improve air quality through better movement of traffic. This will benefit people’s health and the environment, while reducing the number of accidents on this stretch of road.

Feedback from exhibition events

Following the two engagement events, the feedback forms and email responses have been analysed. There were 185 responses made, 173 used the feedback form provided, the remaining 12 were submitted via email. A number of issues were identified, some of which have direct bearing on the scheme and require further investigation, others are beyond the scope of this scheme. Anything outside the scope of this scheme will be looked into separately.

The results of the engagement sessions are available:

Funding

Funding for the £7.029 million scheme consists of the following:

• funding secured from the Cheshire and Warrington Local Enterprise Partnership's Local Growth Fund £3.67m
• £3.359m investment from ourselves (including developer contributions).

The scheme has a high value for money rating. This suggests for each pound of transport expenditure on the scheme £2.30 of benefit to public value will be generated.

Further information

Additional investment at the A51/A55 roundabout junction has been committed by Highways England for the detailed design of this busy junction to improve capacity. The scheme will seek funding for construction during the next round of competitive Road Investment Strategy funding by Highways England. This will ensure the two schemes are complimentary and improve journey time by reducing congestion.

Mott MacDonald consultancy were appointed to produce the business case development and detailed design drawings. Balfour Beatty has been appointed by us to construct the scheme, with scheme construction scheduled to start from summer 2020 and completion in spring 2021.

Copies of the updated plans, construction information board and Full Business Case documentation are available: