Work will restart on Britannia Road next week, which is part of the South East Midlands Local Enterprise Partnership (SEMLEP) backed ‘Transporting Bedford’ project.
This project is delivering major improvements to this well-known congestion hotspot, which links two major roads (Ampthill Road and Kempston Road) by the South Wing of Bedford Hospital.
To date, a host of underground utilities have been moved, and widening works on the eastern side of the road have been completed. When the project had to be paused due to the coronavirus outbreak, works were ongoing to create a new lane going north towards Kempston Road and to make improvements to the road junctions. These works are now set to be restarted.
With the introduction of social distancing guidelines to slow the spread of coronavirus the decision was made by the contractor, with the Council’s agreement, to pause works until they could safely be restarted.
Since then, options have been explored and a new way of working has been agreed which will allow the crews to get back on-site while staying safe.
This will mean that some of the works that would have be done at the same time, will have to be separated to keep the crews safe so the project will take slightly longer to complete than previously estimated. This, in addition to the pause in works, means that the contractor is now expecting this project to be complete and the road re-opened this summer.
The ‘Transporting Bedford’ project is an £18million investment to ease congestion and make roads safer for all users. £15.5 million of which came from SEMLEP through the Local Growth Fund and £2.5million from Bedford Borough Council.
