Devon Blog

c£70million to be spent on highway improvements
Nearly £70 million is to be spent on Devon's roads, bridges and associated improvement schemes during the next year.

The majority of the money will be spent by Devon County Council on maintenance and repair of the county's 12,800 km road network - the longest in any county in England - with the remainder used to fund a range of safety initiatives, improvement schemes, projects to reduce congestion and improve air quality, and initiatives to encourage people not to use their cars but to walk, cycle or use public transport instead.

Major structural maintenance projects to be carried out include two major projects in the South Molton area each costing more than half a million pounds on the A399 between Aller Cross and Northland and between Northlands Cross and Huntstone Wood. Two other schemes costing nearly £300,000 will also be carried out on this road.

Improvements to the A381 between Gerston Cross and Harbertonford will cost just under £1 million and work on the A383 between Mile End Road and Greenaway Road in Newton Abbot will cost £395,000.

Maintenance on the A376 at Winslade Park will cost £405,000 and £240,000 will be spent on the A361 at Gornhay. In Exeter schemes on Alphington Road and Barrack Road and Tollards Road will cost a total of £505,000.

The biggest bridge project is in Exeter with £1million earmarked for vital work on the Canal Swing and Bascule Bridges. Many critical electromechanical components are 70 years old and the operation of the bridges has become unreliable. The works will include the construction of a footbridge attached to the swing bridge to improve the capacity of the ring road and provide safer access for pedestrians and cyclists to the National Cycle Network.

Proposals to strengthen Bideford's historic Long Bridge are currently being formulated with public consultation to take place in March. A total of £850,000 has been earmarked for this work for design and service diversions. Work on the refurbishment will not commence until the consultation work is complete and a decision made by the County's Executive on the final solution.

Two other major bridge schemes are at Kismeldon on the C461 and on an unclassified road over the Little Bovey Leat.

Street lighting will benefit from nearly £5.5 million with another £8 million spent on integrated transport initiatives. In addition, the County Council has been given a special government grant of just over £1 million to pay for the maintenance of the recently de-trunked A39/A361.

More than £3.5 million has been allocated to pay for operations to keep traffic moving in severe winter weather.

Nine million pounds will be spent on general maintenance to improve the road network throughout the county including structural work, reconstruction, resurfacing, surface dressing and patching and just over £3 million will be spent on footpath maintenance.

The budget for road cleaning and ditching is just over £1.5 million and a similar sum will be spent on grass cutting and weed clearance. Ongoing work to improve drainage receives nearly £2 million.
Posted : 10/03/2006 16:03:10

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