Dual carriageway now three-lane motorway after £400m improvement

A SCHEME costing £400m to improve a major North Yorkshire commuter route for tens of thousands of drivers each day has been completed.

Highways England began work to upgrade the stretch of the A1 from Leeming to Barton - in 2015, and contractors have been working to replace the existing dual carriageway with a new, threelane motorway.

The upgrade will be officially opened during a ceremony today.

A Highways England spokesman said: “Our main aim is to improve safety and to improve journey time reliability between London and major urban centres in the north of England and Scotland.”

The 12-mile section of the A1 between Leeming and Barton carries between 59,000 to 69,000 vehicles every day, according to Highways England. Before the work was carried out, it said the stretch of the A1 had “poor alignment with many side road junctions, farms and field accesses”.

While its accident was broadly in line with the national average for old dual carriageways, the severity ratio was significantly higher. Collisions on the section of road often led to full closures of the route with long diversions.

It was also previously the only section of non-motorway on the M1/A1(M) route between London and Newcastle.

Highways England has also created a new “local access road” alongside the section of new motorway, to improve safety for residents living nearby, as well as new junctions at Catterick and Scotch Corner.