The cost of realigning four kilometres of the A59 at Kex Gill soared by £13.7 million this month.

The project is now budgeted to cost £82.5 million — which works out at more than £20 million per kilometre.

North Yorkshire Council has warned the figure is likely to increase further before the scheme, which also involves returning the current road to moorland, finishes in 2027.

The council attributed the price hike to compensation claims by contractors — and warned that even a weather delay could trigger another claim.

It begs the question: is bad luck or bad management to blame? 

Late start 

It was all smiles in February 2023 when council leader Carl Les and his highways chief, Councillor Keane Duncan, joined then roads minister Richard Holden at Kex Gill to celebrate work starting on what is the council's biggest ever highways project.

The Department for Transport had awarded £56.1 million and the council contributed £12.7 million towards the £68.8 million upgrade of the landslip-prone, key east-west route between Harrogate and Skipton. 

Mr Holden said the scheme would "boost economic growth, enhance connectivity and put an end to disruptive road closures". 

Cllr Duncan said: "We remain committed to completing the scheme as quickly as possible and in the most cost-effective way."

But work had started late and is now a year behind schedule. Two landslips haven't helped.

A report by Richard Binks, the council's head of major projects and infrastructre, said the late start was one of the reasons for four compensation claims by contractors totalling £11.7 million. Another £2 million had already been pumped into the project in April, the report added.

The other claims were for changing the design from 'a piled solution to an earth-reinforced embankments solution', complying with statutory obligations on the diversion of Hall Beck and 'poor ground conditions', which appears to be related to the need to remove soil off site. 

Fixed costs, fluid blame 

The council broke the bombshell news that the cost had shot up in a press release issued at 5.14pm on May 2 — a Friday before a bank holiday weekend.

The blame game began.

Cllr Duncan said the additional costs "could not have been foreseen" and were "outside of the council’s control".

He blamed the Department for Transport for signing off on the contract late, which led to a compensation claim by contractors Sisk that the council was responsible for.

The department's £56.1 million sum was fixed — any additional costs have to be paid by North Yorkshire taxpayers.

Comments by Cllr Duncan's Conservative colleagues appeared to contradict his claim that the issues were unforeseeable. 

Cllr Michael Harrison told an executive meeting on May 13:

Deputy leader Cllr Gareth Dadd told the same meeting "we knew that the risk was potentially high", adding: "If anybody is tempted as Tail-end Charlies to point the finger and say, 'I told you so', of course we knew what the potential was but we still did it as it was the right thing to do."

The Department for Transport said Cllr Duncan's claim that it was responsible was "untrue and unfounded". Asked why by the Stray Ferret, it said: "Business cases cannot be assessed by the department until statutory obligations and procedures are completed by the relevant promoter." In other words, the government says it signed off the scheme late because it was awaiting details from the council.

'Failures of oversight'

The Liberal Democrats claimed they raised concerns about “cost overruns” in 2021 but have not substantiated this.

At last week's full council meeting, Cllr Andy Brown, the Green Party member for Aire Valley, asked Cllr Duncan whether the cost increase was due to "bad luck or bad management".

Speaking afterwards, Cllr Brown told the Stray Ferret he raised the matter as an individual councillor rather than on behalf of his party because he was “not impressed by claims that building projects have a tendency to overrun”.

He said he had managed a £17 million project at Hillsborough College in Sheffield on time and on budget 20 years ago.

He said: “In my view, building projects only have a tendency to overrun when the people responsible for overseeing them don’t keep a close enough eye on exactly what is happening.”

Cllr Brown said he did not get proper answers from Cllr Duncan to other questions he asked about costs and the changed design. He added:

Cllr Duncan has said the council will "will continue to be open, transparent and honest" about Kex Gill and "scrutinise every request for compensation robustly".

He says the new road is on track to open in spring next year and that unless the scheme is completed, motorists face neverending delays and diversions due to landslips.

However, a report on the additional contingency funding allocated was kept secret by councillors this month.

The Stray Ferret has submitted a freedom of information request to the council asking to see the report.

Many details around Kex Gill remain murky. But the issue is likely to face continued scrutiny as the likelihood of further cost increases appears strong.