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17
Dec 2024
£68.8 million Kex Gill road scheme: project leader gives detailed update
The A59 should never suffer any more landslips at Kex Gill, according to the man overseeing the £68.8 million road realignment.
Richard Binks, head of major projects and infrastructure at North Yorkshire Council, said the road had been "futureproofed" against landslips during a detailed update to councillors.
The A59, which links Harrogate and Skipton, is one of England’s main east-west link roads, like the A66 further north. But it has suffered 14 landslips in two decades, which prompted the huge project, Mr Binks said.
The four-mile realignment, which is being carried out by Irish building contractor Sisk, is the council's biggest ever capital scheme. The Department for Transport, which awarded £56.1 million, is the major funder. The council is contributing the remaining £12.7 million.
The scheme affects a 27.8 hectare site, which is the equivalent of about 69 football pitches. Besides building a new road, with a climbing lane, it involves creating 12 new structures, including culverts, walls and an underpass.
The culvert for the diverted Hall Beck.
Irish labourers have taken down 3.3 kilometres of dry stone walls and built 4.3 kilometres of new dry stone walls to accommodate the scheme. Hall Beck is being diverted and 12,000 shrubs and trees are being planted.
Mr Binks, who described the project as “massive”, said 370,000 cubic metres of land were being excavated, which alone required 40,000 vehicle movements in haulage.
New bridleways are being created and the existing A59 will be returned to moorland “so you will never know it was ever there,” he told members of the council’s Skipton and Ripon area committee on Thursday last week (December 12).
Asked by committee chair Richard Foster if the new road will ever be affected by landslips, Mr Binks replied.
No. As an engineer, it should not slip again. It’s been designed to be slip proof, shall we say. That’s the reason for doing it. I can assure you on that one unless something we don’t know is going to happen, it’s designed to be futureproofed.
Mr Binks added there were no plans to close the road entirely during the work, which is due to end in June 2026, except for one or two days of resurfacing when the new road ties in with the current A59 at the very end of the scheme. However, traffic lights will be necessary at times.
Cllr Felicity Cunliffe-Lister, a Liberal Democrat who represents Masham and Fountains, asked whether the old road could have been maintained as a non-vehicle route. Mr Binks, a keen cyclist, replied:
I agree it would have been a fantastic opportunity to convert that to an active mode route. Unfortunately, because of its instability maintaining that walking and cycling route would have been a liability to the highway authority.
The existing road closed suddenly in February due to the latest landslip. The council denied claims this was caused by work taking place on the realignment.
The road did not reopen until June after a £2 million sheet piling project to reinforce the road.
Mr Binks said investigations on that landslip discovered “there were caves forming under the road, which was quite staggering” and that the work undertaken would “futureproof” the current scheme.
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