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A50/A564 Stoke to Derby Link
A50/A564 Stoke to Derby Link
- Status
- Completed
- Located in
- Area 7

- Scheme type
- Design, Build, Finance and Operate

The Project
The A50 Stoke to Derby link provides a strategic east-west connection between the M6 motorway in Staffordshire (via the A500) and the M1 motorway in Leicestershire.
Key Data
| Length of Project Road | 57km |
|---|---|
| Estimated Construction Cost | Doveridge Bypass - £20.6m * |
| Contract Award | 20 May 1996 |
| Commencement | 1 July 1996 |
| First Opened to Traffic | Doveridge Bridge 6th March 1998 |
| End of Contract Period | 30 June 2026 |
| DBFO Company | Connect A50 Ltd |
| Type of Road | 2 & 3 Lane dual carriageway |
| Shareholders | Balfour Beatty & Infrastructure Investors |
| Contractors | BBTA Joint venture, Balfour Beatty, Tilbury Douglas, Deutsche Asphalt GmbH |
(* = Value taken from pre-qualification document)
Discussion
The A50 Stoke - Derby Link Road was a Tranche 1A DBFO contract. The contract included the construction of the Doveridge Bypass.
Balfour Beatty Major Civil Engineering, Highway Services maintain the A50 under a Managing Agent Contractor Contract for Connect A50 Limited on behalf of the Highways Agency.
The shareholders of Connect A50 Ltd are Balfour Beatty 85% and Barclays 15%. Construction of Doveridge Bypass, comprising 2.5kms of on-line improvement and 5.2kms of new Bypass, was undertaken by BBTA, a Balfour Beatty/ Tilbury Douglas/ Deutsche Asphalt joint venture.
The project road links Catchems Corner Interchange at Meir/Blythe Bridge, south east of Stoke-On-Trent, with Sawley Interchange near Castle Donnington, south east of Derby. It forms part of a strategic, high speed and heavily trafficked east-west route between the M6 junctions 15/16 and the M1 junctions 24/24A.
The project road comprises part of Blythe Bridge Bypass opened in 1975, Uttoxeter - Blythe Bridge opened in 1985, Doveridge Bypass opened in 1998, Foston Hatton Hilton Bypass opened 1995 and Derby Southern Bypass opened in 1997, although the DBFO Company did not assume maintenance and operations responsibility for Derby Southern BP until 1998. The A6 spur road east of Derby was built as part of BP scheme and is part of the project road.
The project road is predominantly dual 2 lane, 51 kms of A50 and 2 kms of A6, with a 4 km section of A50 being dual 3 lane. It is mainly grade separated but includes 4 at grade roundabouts and 4 left-in/left-out junctions.
Operations and maintenance is sub-contracted to Balfour Beatty Major Civil Engineering, Highway Services.




