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06
Nov 2024
Kex Gill £68.8 million road realignment update issued
The £68.8 million project to realign four kilometres of the A59 around Kex Gill is due to be completed in spring 2026, according to highways chief Keane Duncan.
The realignment, which aims to prevent the frequent landslips that have led to road closures, is the biggest highways project ever undertaken by North Yorkshire Council, affecting the stretch of road from Blubberhouses to Moor Lane.
Councillor Duncan, the council’s executive member for highways, has published a progress report ahead of next week’s full council meeting in Northallerton.
It said the project was making “positive progress” and the new road was on track to open in spring 2026 but he added the scale of the project should not be underestimated.
He said:
The scheme is taking place in some of the toughest, most unforgiving terrain in the county. It involves clearing 64,000m2 of vegetation, excavating 370,000 m3 of material, constructing 12 new structures including walls, underpasses and culverts, and carefully handling our local badgers, otters, birds and fish.
The season’s major earthworks operation has been delivered to programme. Delivery through to next spring will focus upon structural bridleway underpass, new culverts, the beck diversion and new drainage systems. As the works progress into the 2025 earthworks season, the below-ground works will have been completed, and focus will turn to the aboveground features such as new embankments.
The A59, which is the main road between Harrogate and Skipton, closed suddenly on February 2 following the latest landslip and re-opened in June.
Four council officials and a representative of contractors Sisk attended a drop-in session in Hampsthwaite shortly before the road reopened.
Barrie Mason, the council’s assistant director for highways and transformation, said the road, which cuts through a Site of Special Scientific Interest, told the meeting the project was due to be completed in summer 2026 but warned he could not guarantee the road won’t have to close the again if there was winter bad weather
He also said temporary traffic lights and “some full closures” were expected at some points throughout the scheme.
The council is contributing £12 million towards the £68.8 million realignment. The Department for Transport’s major road network fund is contributing the rest.
Richard Binks, the council’s head of major projects and infrastructure, told the Hampsthwaite meeting it was rare for the DfT to award such a large grant and it “showed North Yorkshire Council can deliver schemes”.
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