Major milestone reached
COAST ROAD EXCAVATION BEGINS FOR THREE-LAYER ROUNDABOUT
Reporter WITH one year left to go, the Silverlink roadworks have reached a major milestone as excavation work starts at the junction.
A triple-decker roundabout is being created where the A19 and A1058 Coast Road meet in North Tyneside.
Under the scheme, three layers will be formed – the Coast Road on top, a junction in the middle and the A19 on the bottom. The project, which started in August 2016, now has a year left to go. It is scheduled to finish in March 2019.
Highways England says substantial progress has been made so far and a critical phase of the scheme has begun.
Excavation work has started to create an underpass, which will involve removing 80,000 cubic metres of earth from the area – that’s enough soil to fill 32 Olympic-sized swimming pools.
As the material is removed, it will be transported to a site in Wardley where it will be stored and later reused for another Highways England project to upgrade the A19 Testo’s junction south of the river.
Transporting the soil will involve more than 10,000 lorry movements totalling over 60,000 miles.
Highways England says that by taking the material to Wardley and reusing it on another scheme, it is helping to reduce overall vehicle movements and costs as well as protecting the environment.
Steven Cox, assistant project manager, added: “The work is going really well. It is difficult to put an exact figure on it but I would estimate we are about 60% to 65% through the scheme. The piling work is around 95% complete and the rest of it will be finished by the end of April.
“We have now started the excavation of