Highways Agency - Safe roads, Reliable journeys, Informed travellers

The Project

The A6 Rushden - Higham Ferrers Bypass was one of the schemes included in the National Road Programme in 1988 and was the subject of two Public Inquiries in spring 1992 and autumn 1994. The scheme was included in the Targeted Programme of Improvements in 1998

The 'design and build contract' for the construction was awarded to Stenoak Associated Services, and was later taken over by Aggregate Industries as the former went into administration. WSP Civils were employed to undertake the design works, while White Young Green acted as agents to the Highways Agency.

The A6 Rushden Higham Ferrers bypass is 5.5km (3.4 miles) long, consisting of 2.3km of dual carriageway, and 3.2 km of single carriageway. The Bypass diverges from the A6 south of Rushden, and rejoins the A6 via a roundabout at the junction of the A45 and A6 north of Higham Ferrers.

The A6 Rushden Higham Ferrers Bypass opened on the 14 August 2003. The former trunk road through Rushden and Higham Ferrers was detrunked on its opening. Subsequently, the new A6 bypass was also detrunked. Responsibility for the whole of the former A6, and current A6 now lies with Northamptonshire County Council.

Up to 19,700 vehicles previously passed through the towns of Rushden and Higham Ferrers every day and the new bypass has removed a significant amount of the traffic. This has provided safer and healthier communities. The bypass also means a safer road and more reliable journey times for through traffic.

The Traffic Impact Study was completed shortly after the bypass opened, and consisted of 'Before' and 'After' traffic data. It concluded -

"The scheme has therefore been successful in removing vehicles from Rushden and Higham Ferrers, which will in turn reduce the environment, safety and severance problems which existed in the towns. The opening of the Rushden Link Road is forecast to further reduce the impact of traffic in Rushden and Higham Ferrers and surrounding county roads."

Appraisal Summary Table

By following the link below you can download the Appraisal Summary Table (AST) for the A6 Rushden and Higham Ferrers Bypass. An Appraisal Summary Table is a summary of key consequences relating to the environmental, economic and social impacts of a trunk road scheme.

• A6 Rushden and Higham Ferrers Bypass - Appraisal Summary Table

POPE - Five Year After study

As part of our ongoing programme of Post Opening Project Evaluation (POPE) this scheme has been reviewed at one and five years after opening.  The studies compare the outturn effects of this scheme to the predicted impacts.

A summary of the five year after report is available to download here:  A6 Rushden & Higham Ferrers FYA  (PDF 50KB) . 

A full version of the report is available to download here: A6 Rushden & Higham Ferrers FYA - Full Report (PDF 2.04MB)

The objectives of this scheme were to reduce the environmental problems in Rushden and Higham Ferrers; improve road safety; relieve congestion and improve journey time reliability.  The scheme has achieved all  its objectives , although there have not been as many accident savings as we  predicted.

The scheme has reduced journey times for traffic using the bypass by up to 7 minutes and outturn economic value of scheme benefits is greater than we expected.