{"id":87557,"date":"2017-12-21T15:35:58","date_gmt":"2017-12-21T15:35:58","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/mostafa.openonline.co.uk\/?guid=8778002c53a56b57dbe97713ceac3c58"},"modified":"2017-12-21T15:35:58","modified_gmt":"2017-12-21T15:35:58","slug":"press-release-bypass-is-best-a5036-option-says-highways-england","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mostafa.openonline.co.uk\/?p=87557","title":{"rendered":"Press release: Bypass is best A5036 option says Highways England"},"content":{"rendered":"
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The company confirmed today it would formally defend its decision to opt for a bypass after Sefton Council applied for a judicial review on the basis that a tunnel option was not included as part of the public consultation.<\/p>\n

Following the consultation earlier this year, Highways England announced in August it had decided to take forward the design of a new bypass through Rimrose Valley rather than try to improve the existing route between the port and Switch Island junction where the road meets the M57 and M58 motorways.<\/p>\n

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\"Map<\/div>
Highways England announced in the summer it had chosen the bypass option (above)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Highways England chief executive Jim O Sullivan said:<\/p>\n

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The considerable cost and disruption of constructing a tunnel and ongoing maintenance and operational costs meant it was never going to be a viable solution.<\/p>\n

A bypass will provide similar long-term benefits to a tunnel \u2013 an almost junction-free link between the port and motorway network – at a significantly lower cost with less construction disruption and a much shorter delivery time when pressure on the existing road is increasing all the time.<\/p>\n

We want to continue talking to the council and local people to ensure we deliver an A5036 Port of Liverpool route which can support the local and regional economy.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

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\"Heavy<\/div>
The existing route is often heavily congested with vehicle numbers increasing<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Explaining why a tunnel was never put forward as an option at the consultation, Tim Gamon, Highways England\u2019s regional delivery director for the North West, said a bypass would deliver the same economic benefits as a tunnel but while a tunnel would cost more than \u00a31.5 billion the cost of a bypass was around \u00a3250 million.<\/p>\n

Mr Gamon said:<\/p>\n

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The tunnel simply does not provide value for money. Furthermore, the impact of delivering a tunnel through the park would mean the whole of the Rimrose Valley would potentially be \u2018out of bounds\u2019 for recreational use – including the sports pitches \u2013 for up to 6 years due to the scale of the construction and safety zones required.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

Highways England is working on ideas to help mitigate the impact of a new bypass on the country park, park users and people living nearby, with a package of mitigation and environmental improvement measures including landscaping, planted screening, noise barriers and improved leisure facilities and pedestrian and cyclist links through the valley.<\/p>\n

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\"Artist's<\/div>
An artist’s impression of how the current A5036 could be transformed if replaced by a bypass<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Delivering a bypass would mean handing back the existing A5036 to local people to provide a clear separation of local traffic from commercial and commuter traffic between the port and motorway network. Highways England will transform the existing A5036 – delivering improved cycling facilities, better crossing and footpaths, improved connectivity on the inter-city routes crossing the road to benefit local communities.<\/p>\n

General enquiries<\/h3>\n

Members of the public should contact the Highways England customer contact centre on 0300 123 5000.<\/p>\n

Media enquiries<\/h3>\n

Journalists should contact the Highways England press office on 0844 693 1448 and use the menu to speak to the most appropriate press officer.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Highways England has reiterated its view that building a new bypass is the best option to replace the A5036 Port of Liverpool route in Merseyside.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":8,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[13],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mostafa.openonline.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/87557"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mostafa.openonline.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mostafa.openonline.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mostafa.openonline.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/8"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mostafa.openonline.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=87557"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/mostafa.openonline.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/87557\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mostafa.openonline.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=87557"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mostafa.openonline.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=87557"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mostafa.openonline.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=87557"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}