A46 dualling project enters home straight

The long-awaited scheme to improve the A46 has entered the home straight and drivers at the Newark end of the road will soon be using a fully-opened dual carriageway.

The section of the new road from Farndon to Car Colston is expected to be dual carriageway before the end of the month.

At the moment vehicles are using single lanes on the four-mile stretch between Farndon and Flintham, which opened at the start of December.

The Highways Agency project manager, Mr Geoff Bethel, said the overall scheme was more than 90% complete.

“We’re on the home straight,” he said.

Officially the project team is sticking to a completion date of summer 2012, but it is hoped the new road will be finished ahead of schedule in April.

“I think it is very likely that the new road will be open in advance of the scheme being completed,” said Mr Bethel.

He said the scheme would continue until the summer but that was likely to be for the completion of work on the old A46, before it is handed over to Nottinghamshire County Council.

The section of the road from the Saxondale roundabout at Bingham to around Car Colston is already dual carriageway.

All the large structures along the new route are in place and surfacing work is being finished off.

“I am very happy with the way things are going,” said Mr Bethel.

“The contractors we have got are all very committed to getting the scheme finished as soon as possible.”

Mr Bethel hoped the better weather so far this winter would continue as work has to stop if the temperature drops too low or there is heavy rain, snow or standing water.

Last winter’s extreme weather cost about a week’s worth of work.

Mr Bethel said temporary traffic restrictions would continue in some places into the new year.

Lodge Lane has been closed in order to carry out a full depth reconstruction of the road.

“We don’t hold on to any road closures for any longer than we need to,” he said.

He advised people using the new road not to rely on sat nav systems, but to follow the signs in place.

He said satellite maps would probably not be updated until the scheme was finished, but signs on the route were regularly checked.

People living along the A46 and those who regularly use the road have welcomed the work.

Mr Bethel said the positive feedback was very encouraging.

“I have worked for the Highways Agency for 21 years on a number of big schemes but never had one like this with so many positive comments from people, which we are thankful for,” he said.

Mr Neil Skinner, of Charles Street, Newark, travels to Nottingham every day where he works as a communications officer for Framework.

He said it used to be a slog going through Farndon on the old road but the newly opened section had made a big difference.

“It has probably shaved a quarter of an hour at the very least off the journey time,” he said.

The Advertiser’s chief photographer, Marie Wilson, uses the A46 at least three times a day during the week.

She said her journey time to Newark from her home in West Bridgford had been reduced by ten minutes.

“When it fully opens it will make a massive difference. I think it will bring more visitors to Newark,” she said.

A county councillor, Mrs Sue Saddington, who represents a number of villages along the old A46, said the new road would bring huge benefits to constituents.