Highways Agency

The Project

Haydon Bridge is situated on a single carriageway section of the A69 trunk road approximately 8km west of Hexham, midway between Newcastle-Upon-Tyne and Carlisle. It is the last remaining settlement of a significant size, on the A69, to be bypassed.

The A69 provides an important Transpennine route between the A1 in the east and the M6 in the west. The route is generally single carriageway west of Hexham, and dual carriageway east of Hexham. At Haydon Bridge, the daily traffic flow is approximately 12,000 vehicles per day, of which 15% are heavy goods vehicles.

This volume of traffic is predicted to increase in line with national trends, growing substantially during the next 20 years and exacerbating the current problems already encountered by the local community such as accidents, noise and vibration, deterioration in air quality and increased community severance.

Current Progress

We started construction of the Haydon Bridge Bypass in January 2007, when the site offices were constructed. Work has now been underway for 12 months with completion due in Spring 2009.

The earthworks for the scheme are now substantially complete, with only the embankment at East Lands End to be completed.

Unfortunately, the bad weather during the early part of the summer did severely hamper the project in all areas and in particular the work for the construction of the South Tyne Viaduct. However, given a milder autumn than expected, work has been able to progress in an effort to keep the scheme on schedule for completion in Spring 2009.

Over The Next Six Months

The contractors will continue work on the viaduct in the South Tyne River.

We are due to start work shortly on the Gees Wood and East Lands Ends Bridge. We expect this to be completed by  late spring/early summer.

We expect the excavation works at the South of Cemetery Road are now expected to be completed by Easter. Cemetery Road will remain closed to traffic until completion of the new carriageway at this location.

Traffic Management

Roadworks on the existing A69 carraigeway are required to form the connections at either end of the new bypass. These connections are situated at the eastern and western ends of the village. We started work for the western connection at West Rattenraw Junction on 9th January 2008 and these are expected to last 23 weeks.

Works to the eastern connection of the A686 Alston Junction will commence after the August Bank Holiday and will run through until Christmas 2008. 

To ensure the safety of both construction workers and motorists all work related to these connections will be undertaken with lane closures controlled by temporary traffic lights. These will be manually operated during the peak times, Monday to Friday 07:00am to 19:00pm. During the non-peak hours, Monday to Friday 19:00pm to 07:00am and all day Saturday and Sunday, the traffic lights will be activated automatically.