Chancellor Announces Funding for Lincoln Eastern Bypass

The Chancellor George Osbourne MP has announced, as part of his autumn statement, that the Lincoln Eastern Bypass is one of thirty-five infrastructure projects around the country set to receive funding.

A 'best and final' bid for £50m, towards the expected £98m cost of the Bypass, was submitted by Lincolnshire County Council to the Department for Transport in September.

Executive Member for Highways and Transportation, Cllr. William Webb, said:

"We are absolutely delighted to hear this news from the Chancellor. Our hopes and aspirations have finally been confirmed and so much hard work has been carried out with our partner authorities to try and bring the bypass to fruition. We have been working towards this for almost 20 years and it’s wonderful that we can start taking the final steps needed to make the bypass a reality.

"The announcement means that we have the additional £50m that is needed and that we have 'conditional approval' for the bypass. We look forward to seeing the full details, so we can start carrying out the additional work required to fulfil these conditions and understand the government’s funding timescale. It is possible that construction could start as soon as 2014."

The Lincoln Eastern Bypass was identified as the best solution to improve traffic flow in the city and it will have tremendous positive economic benefits for the county and East Midlands as a whole.

A bid for funding successfully made it through an initial ‘expression of interest’ stage in February. Lincolnshire County Council is making a contribution of £14m and, following an Executive meeting on Monday, 15th August, is acting as 'guarantor' to underwrite the £34m third party funded element. This meant that if the bid was successful, construction could start far sooner, without the authority needing to wait for details of the developer contributions. Cllr.Webb added: 

"The county council had already agreed this summer to guarantee the outstanding balance in the short term, so we could move forward more quickly. Today’s announcement by government confirms we are now in an excellent position to do this.

"We are of course still working towards solutions to improve the highways in other parts of Lincolnshire as well."

Biker killed in A46 Lincoln Bypass Tragedy

The Lincolnshire Echo is reporting that a motorcyclist was pronounced dead on the scene of an accident which caused the A46 Lincoln bypass to close for four hours.

The rider, believed to be a middle-aged man from the Nottingham area, was riding a red Triumph motorbike which was in collision with a van and a car.

The other vehicles involved were a blue Daf van driven by a North Hykeham man and black Toyota saloon owned by a Lincoln resident.

Neither of the drivers were injured.

Congestion rippled across the city following the collision which occurred at 11.25am on Friday causing both carriageways of the A46 between the Riseholme and Nettleham roundabouts to close.

Spokesman for Lincolnshire Police, James Newall, said:

"This incident took place when there would have been a fair amount of traffic on the roads. It is vital that we get information from as many witnesses as possible while it is still relatively fresh in their minds.

"The road was closed for a significant amount of time to enable our collision experts to carry out their analysis of the scene and for recovery teams to clear the stretch."

The Lincolnshire Road Safety Partnership confirmed this was the seventh fatality on the county's roads so far in 2010 and the fifth accident causing injury on this stretch of the A46 in five years.

Lincoln Eastern Bypass Planning Application Goes Public

Progress towards a Lincoln Eastern Bypass has reached the next stage, as Lincolnshire County Council’s planning application goes out for public consultation.


Copies of the application, plans, environmental statement and supporting documents are now available to view and comment on throughout February.

Mr. Alan Freeman, Head of Spatial Planning at Lincolnshire County Council said:

"The planning application for the Lincoln Eastern Bypass is now available for public viewing. Following this consultation, a report will be compiled by the county council's planning department and submitted for consideration to the Planning and Regulation Committee in late Spring."

The authority has applied for permission to build a road from the A158 Wragby Road in the north, crossing over the River Witham on a new bridge and continuing south to end at the A15 Sleaford Road, east of Bracebridge Heath. The new road would also have junctions with Greetwell Road, B11990 Washingborough and B118 to Branston.

The application can be viewed by clicking here and searching for 'Eastern Bypass' or at the offices of Lincolnshire County Council, Spatial Planning, Witham Park House, Waterside South, Lincoln, LN5 7JN or at the offices of City of Lincoln Council, North Kesteven District Council and West Lindsey District Council.

The proposed Lincoln Eastern Bypass is intended to reduce traffic congestion in Lincoln city centre and help Lincoln to grow as a regional centre. It is also aimed at opening up land for development to the east of the city and encouraging the use of public transport, cycling and walking.