Plans to improve A64 junction
Highway chiefs are drawing up schemes to improve the busy A64 trunk road where two couples died in separate accidents some three months ago.
It follows a site meeting with residents of Welburn and Crambeck near Malton with Highways England, North Yorkshire County Council engineers and County Cllr Don MacKenzie, the authority’s executive member for highways and transport.
Simon Jones, Highways England’s asset manager for Yorkshire and the North East, told members of the County Council’s Area Committee at Ganton: “A review of options is under way around the two villages.
“We are looking at potential improvements, alongside route treatments to see what can be done to improve this part of the network for all road users.”
The move underlines the campaignbyTheScarborough News for safety improvements and dualling of the A64 which is said to have the worst accident record in the North of England. Some 11 people have been killed in road crashes on the road between York and Malton in the past few months. Some £250 million is planned to be spent on dualling the trunk road which carries heavy traffic between Scarborough and West Yorkshire to improve the economy of Ryedale and the Yorkshire coast year-round.
Mr Jones said a total of 111 schemes are due to be carried out in the next four years on the section of the A64.
Top priority is Barton Hill, scene of several major accidents including fatalities.
“The scheme is not programmed to be done in this financial year” said Mr Jones. He added that the work at the hill, which includes a crossroads leading to Castle Howard, Slingsby and Barton-le-Willows, is due to start in November and will include widening the central reservation and staggering the junction.
Other improvements lined up include drainage work, renewing verge and hazard markers, resurfacing, and renewing footpaths.
The Hopgrove junction scheme – a controversial bottleneck – has now moved into the Stage One category, said Mr Jones.
Engineers are exploring junction improvements and the dualing of the existing single road from Hopegrove to Barton-le-Willows with partners and stake holders. “There is no preferred route option currently,” he added but told the committee that a public consultation will be carried out either late this year or early next year on the dualling scheme.