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A19 Investment

Work on the planned widening and silencing of the A19 between Wynyard and Billingham will definitely start in 2020 according to Highway Agency Engineers.

They gave the guarantee to Stockton North Labour MP Alex Cunningham when he met with them to discuss the project which will end the noise torment from the concrete road for Billingham residents.

The project to deal with the noise was prioritised by the then Labour Government in 2008 and would have been completed by now had the project not been axed by the Tories and Liberal Democrats.

The A19 Norton to Wynyard improvement scheme was then announced on 1st December 2014 in the Road Investment Strategy. The proposed scheme will run in both directions between the A1027 Norton Junction and A689 Wynyard Junction and will be approximately 5 Kilometres in length.

Highways England intend on carrying out this work by expanding the two lane dual carriageway into three lanes with new, low noise surfacing to replace the concrete section of the road.

The benefits that have been advised are reduction of congestion, reduced noise and journeys being safer. It is being designed to deliver greater benefits to road users, local communities and support the region’s economy.

Paul Ahdal, Project manager for Highways England, has advised that the proposed scheme are still in early stages of development and providing the scheme demonstrates ongoing value for its monetary target and successfully completes the statutory planning processes, the work will commence by March 2020.

Alex said:
“I have been assured that this long awaited project does meet all the financial criteria necessary and Highways England does not expect there to be any further delays.

That said, local people have campaigned about the noise problem for nearly two decades and we’ll be well into the third before the work is completed, so I hope we won’t find this scheme, like so many in the North, side-lined because of any future need by the Tories to cut costs.”