Financial blow to vital road upgrade
RISING costs as a result of inflation have forced Devon County Council to make major changes to its ongoing North Devon Link Road improvement plans.
The £67 million improvement programme, the vast majority of which is funded by the Department for Transport, were costed back in 2019 when the economic landscape was very different.
A statement by Devon County Council read: “Improving the safety of the road, while delivering improved economic benefits to North Devon and Torridge economies – two of the main objectives to the scheme – remain very much a priority.
“The unexpected coronavirus pandemic, which has had and still is having a dramatic impact on businesses, followed by the unforeseen rise in costs of materials and energy compounded by the war in Ukraine, inflation, and rising interest rates, and £67 million no longer buys as much in 2022 as it did in 2019.
“The entire construction programme is managed within a number of contracts, with one contract in particular accountable for the main work. That’s where the problem is now.
“Due to rising inflation, the contractor’s costs have increased beyond what might usually be expected by more than a quarter, since first costed.
“We have spoken to the Department for Transport, as the main funder for the project, to see if there’s any more funding from them available. There’s not.”
Councillor Andrea Davis, Cabinet member with responsibility for infrastructure, said: “That’s the reality of what’s happening in construction and other business sectors everywhere.
It means that we’ve had to look within the £67 million budget, outside the scope of the main essential work, to see what we can do differently to reduce costs, that does not compromise the purpose of the improvements.”
In addition to the main improvement work, plans had been to improve junctions at Heywood, Buckleigh, Westleigh, Bishops Tawton, West Buckland and Borners Bridge.
“To absorb the extra costs within the main contract, we need cut back on costs elsewhere,” said Cllr Davis. “So, we will continue our plans to improve junctions at Heywood, Buckleigh, Westleigh, West Buckland, and Borners Bridge, but we will now redesign the Bishops Tawton junction, to remove what was to be an underpass, and instead install safe crossing facilities.”
Plans for a section of overtaking lane between Portmore and Landkey roundabouts, and for a footbridge over the road in that vicinity, will now be removed from the programme.