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The announcement

The Announcement

The Secretary of State for Transport has confirmed that the scheme to be taken forward for further development, as a proposed bypass of Haydon Bridge, should be the Red Route shown at Public Consultation in March 2003. The line of the route is shown on the plan below. This is now the 'Preferred Route'.

Background

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 trans-Pennine 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.

Proposed Route

The proposed bypass would re-route the existing A69 around the southern edge of Haydon Bridge between its junction with the A686 (Alston Road) and West Rattenraw (approximately 500m west of the existing railway bridge).

The bypass would be single carriageway standard with metre wide hard strips on either side to give an overall carriageway width of 9.3 metres.

The following elements will also be key features of the bypass:

• New surface-level priority junctions with provision of central right-turning lanes, to link the bypass with the local road network;
• Some local realignment of side roads in order to accommodate the construction of new underpasses beneath the bypass;
• Local realignment of A686 (Alston Road) where it meets the bypass;
• New bridge crossing of Langley Burn through Gees Wood;
• New multi-span bridge crossing of the South Tyne River and Newcastle to Carlisle Railway Line;
• Appropriate mitigation and compensatory works to minimise adverse environmental impacts;
• New links under or across bypass to public rights of way.

Typical Cross Sections

Public Consultation

A Public Consultation for the proposed bypass began with an exhibition of the proposals on 12 March 2003, and this signalled the beginning of a 12-week consultation period during which members of the public and representatives of statutory advisors, relevant authorities, and other organisations were given the opportunity to provide comment on the proposals.

In total, 307 people attended the exhibition and 208 questionnaire responses were received. Six written responses were also received from members of the public and a further 13 written responses were received from the representatives of statutory advisors, relevant authorities, and other organisations.