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Wakefield’s Eastern Relief Road project nears completion

The Wakefield Eastern Relief Road will ease the city’s traffic congestion

By Alex Haithwaite

WAKEFIELD’S Eastern Relief Road (WERR) is nearing completion and is expected to be open this spring.

The new £33m highway will reduce traffic congestion in the city centre and service a 2,500 housing development at the City Fields site.

The road will be a single carriageway with a 30mph speed limit, sited between the A638 Doncaster Road to the south and the A642 Aberford Road to the north of Wakefield.

The scheme commenced to the north of the district at three points – a roundabout junction with the A642 Aberford Road, a priority junction at Aberford Road near Finkin Lane and another with Ferry Lane. It will proceed south to a new bridge under the railway line and from there to a new bridge crossing over the River Calder. It will join the A638 Doncaster Road at a new traffic signalled gyratory junction.

Work began in April 2015 and is expected to be completed by May 2017.

Hundreds of jobs have been, and will be, created from the construction of the road and the subsequent building of the new homes.

One of people who have benefited from the scheme is Damon Ward, a general foreman on the site.

The WERR will be the first of the West Yorkshire Combined Authority’s 10-year programme of transport scheme projects to be completed.

There are 30 schemes in total across the region, and they have been specifically designed to accelerate growth and create up to 20,000 new jobs.

Wakefield councillor and chair of West Yorkshire Combined Authority Peter Box said: “The progress of the Wakefield Eastern Relief Road is great news for the district.

“The new road will help reduce traffic congestion in and around the city, improve our transport links, unlock land for future development and help create thousands of new jobs.”

These projects are being funded by the Leeds City Region Enterprise Partnership (LEP) Growth Deal, of which Wakefield Council is a member.

The LEP initiative is to grow the region’s economy at a faster rate than the national average over the next two decades.

Key Objectives of the road

To ease inbound congestion which is the main cause of air pollution and slow peak journey times.

To improve the safety of the arterial road network into Wakefield.

To reduce air and noise pollution.

To increase accessibility to future housing and employment growth allocated in the Local Development Framework (LDF).

To support the new City Centre Developments in Wakefield through a sustainable transport network.

To reduce the number of accidents caused by the high levels of car usage for trips into the city centre.

To provide a road network to the City Fields development, a large scale housing project with the first phase being the building of 2,500 houses.

 

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