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13
Aug
Kex Gill: £82.5 million road scheme suffers yet another delay
The opening date for the £82.5 million Kex Gill bypass has been pushed back until September.
Councillor Malcolm Taylor, North Yorkshire Council’s cabinet member for highways, told the BBC today (August 13) the new section of road was expected to open “in the next few weeks”, probably in September.
The scheme to construct a new 4.8 kilometre-stretch of the A59, a key trans-Pennine route between Harrogate and Skipton, is the biggest capital programme ever undertaken by North Yorkshire Council.
But the project has been beset by delays and rising costs.
The bypass was originally due to open in May 2025 at a cost of £68.8 million.
But the date was pushed back to June 3 this year due to adverse winter weather, and the cost rose by £13.7 million.
A council report in May then said the new road was due to open on July 6 — a week before the start of the Great Yorkshire Show in Harrogate.
Cllr Taylor told the Stray Ferret in June contractors Sisk were working “tirelessly” and the project was “nearing its final stages”.
But hopes of a summer finish now appear to be dashed.
Cllr Taylor told the BBC:
We have got a little bit of work to do but in the next few weeks we will be open to traffic. This will make a big difference to this part of the world. Nobody wants this road open more than we do.
It has its own water problems in winter. We had about 30-odd consecutive days of rain in January and February this year which really did get in the way of engineers who were doing this project.
The project, across Nidderdale National Landscape, was undertaken after 15 landslips since 2000 forced a series of road closures.
Once the road is open, work will continue for another year to return the old section of the A59 back to moorland.
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