Airport relief road is ready at last
IT’S been decades in the planning and faced months of delays - but the £290m Manchester Airport bypass is finally set to open next month.
Highways bosses say the new A6 relief road will open to traffic in early October, providing a link across Stockport, Manchester and East Cheshire.
Stretching from Hazel Grove in the east to the M56 and Manchester Airport in the west, the 10km link road is aimed at boosting connectivity, jobs and business links and easing congestion.
Funded by the Department for Transport, and including seven new junctions, 11 bridges and 10km of single and dual carriageway, it’s been described as ‘one of the most complex local road schemes in the UK’.
A shared cycle and pedestrian path also runs its length. It is surrounded by nearly 900sqm of grassland, hedgerow and woodland.
But it’s been a long time coming.
Originally planned for completion in autumn last year, the project has been plagued by objections, disruption and delays. First mooted as early as the 1930s, it wasn’t until 2012 that consultation - and the objections - began.
But the planning application got the go-ahead in early 2014 and the following January the government approved Stockport council’s purchase of land to make way for the road. Work finally began in March 2015, with a completion date of last autumn.
But progress was to be marred by controversy and delays.
In 2012, a survey sent out to residents about the road raised eyebrows when respondents were asked personal questions including whether their birth gender was different to their current gender.
In April last year, it was revealed heavy rain and flooding had postponed the road’s completion to spring this year.
Costs also spiralled, with £1.1m having to be spent on building eight extra ‘bunds’ - large mounds of earth along the route which act as a barrier between the bypass and nearby homes - to get rid of excess soil.
An extra planning application also had to be submitted to build a 95m long 20m high fence to catch golf balls from the sixth hole at Hazel Grove Golf Club.
Despite more resident objections, this was approved last April.
Andy Burnham, Mayor of Greater Manchester said: “Manchester Airport not only provides our city-region with international connections, it is one of our cityregion’s key employment zones.
“This new road will provide a vital link there for the people and businesses of Stockport, Manchester and East Cheshire.”