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15
Feb 2023
Harrogate's Otley Road cycleway has cost £2.2m so far
The Otley Road cycleway in Harrogate has cost £2,234,000 so far — almost triple the amount awarded to contractors to construct the first phase.
Hull civil engineering firm PBS Construction was awarded £827,000 in 2021 to build phase one from Harlow Moor Road to Cold Bath Road.
The much-criticised route opened in January last year but subsequent remedial work and design fees for phase two of the project — which has since been scrapped — increased the cost significantly.
The widening of the Otley Road and Harlow Moor Road junction was the main remedial work.
The figures are contained in a North Yorkshire County Council report, which raises questions over whether the council had sufficient funds to complete the second phase of the scheme.
Councillor Keane Duncan, the Conservative executive member for highways and transportation at North Yorkshire County Council, said phase two had been dropped because it lacked public support.
But the report reveals the council has just £565,000 remaining of the £4,275,000 it secured in 2018 from the government's National Productivity Investment Fund for measures that enabled development and business growth in west Harrogate
The funding and spending figures contained in the report are reproduced below.
According to the document, council officers received "multiple reports" about the design and construction of the cycleway from residents and groups such as Harrogate District Cycle Action after it opened. It adds:
The report adds £60,000 of the remaining funds are expected to cover these remedial works.
Read more:
- Harrogate's Otley Road to be dug up again
- Confirmed: second phase of Harrogate's Otley Road cycle route scrapped
The council has said it will come up with new traffic calming measures in the west of Harrogate to compensate for scrapping phase two of the scheme, which would have extended the cycleway from Cold Bath Road towards Beech Grove.
It still has aspirations to construct phase three out of town to Cardale Park at an unspecified time in the future.
North Yorkshire County Council’s highways area manager Melisa Burnham said:
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