When was skipton bypass built

That fact, together with developing work on trunk roads, makes Bradford easily the busiest district in west Yorkshire in terms of its construction programme. I know that both the Department of Transport and the city council have been working closely together on their plans for the future.

The Airedale trunk route has been debated and discussed, and has been the subject of inquiries and reports, for decades rather than mere years.

Local residents must have wondered whether it would ever come into being, and I think there was even some scepticism when I had the pleasure of cutting the first turf for stage 1 in August As the route follows river washlands often liable to flooding, it has been necessary to construct an embankment and the amount of disruption and inconvenience which has come about as a result of the massive movements of stone and material has been considerable.

People have had to be patient and grit their teeth as heavy lorries have thundered past on roads which were never designed for them. Nevertheless, the contractors, Budge, should be congratulated on meeting the two-year schedule, and we look forward very much to the visit of my hon. Friend on 2 August when he is to declare open stage 1 from Kildwick to Beechcliffe. The Steeton and Eastburn parish council has long campaigned for the new road, which will supplant a busy, twisting and dangerous stretch of the A Improved road safety will thus be a major benefit, as will the elimination of delays brought about by the replacement of a level crossing by a bridge at Station road, Steeton.

There is some concern that Hard Ings road, Keighley, between Beechliffe and Victoria park, which is an existing single carriageway road linking the dual carriageway sections of stages 1 and 2 of the new route, may have inadequate capacity for the traffic that the roads may generate.

In theory, this bypass will carry a smaller volume of traffic than the routes which also serve the needs of traffic heading to and from the town itself, but I believe the situation will have to he watched closely when stages 1 and 2 are open because Hard Ings road could be a source of future problems. The really significant economic advantages will start to come with the completion of stage 2 from Victoria park Keighley, to Crossflatts.

Again, work has been proceeding apace, and stage 2 will open very early in The completion of this part of the route will provide a new and attractive approach to Keighley while relieving the Riddlesden area of heavy traffic. Before moving too far away from Keighley, may I urge Bradford council to move fast in the direction of a traffic scheme for the town itself. Its streets are badly congested with vehicles throughout each week day, and I welcome the commitment to try to bring about improvements.

It is to the east of Crossflatts that we run into big trouble on the Airedale route. As it passes through Bingley, the A is appallingly congested, with dreadful hold-ups for traffic and an intolerable situation for those living or working nearby. The line of the route has essentially been established but, as my hon.

Friend's predecessor, my right hon. Friend the Member for Wallasey Mrs. Chalker , pointed out in an Adjournment debate on May 6 , the construction of the section to the east of Crossflatts is dependent on a decision on the route to the east of Bingley. When the first two sections come into use, they will attract extra traffic that does not at present use the new road.

However, all those cars and lorries will be funnelled back on to the existing road at Crossflatts, close to one of the most dangerous parts of the A, which has claimed a number of lives in recent months. The really bad news is not just that work has not started to the east of Crossflatts, but that we appear still to be a very long way off reaching that point. An announcement has been delayed by problems in determining what happens at Cottingley Bar, the eastern extremity of stage 3, because until we know where we go from there it is impossible to complete the planning of the route to Cottingley.

The section from Cottingley Bar to the east of Shipley holds the key to the success of the entire route. In May , three years after the first public inquiry, my right hon. Friend the Member for Wallasey said that she was conscious of the need for a decision as quickly as possible, but today—over five years later—we are no further on. I believe that the long delays are largely attributable to the mistaken way in which the Department has brought forward its proposals for public debate and consultation, failing at each stage to provide people with genuine choices between a full range of options.

When the Department's original plan for bypassing Saltaire to the north was rejected by the public inquiry inspector, Mr. Chance, it went out to public consultation with three alternatives, all of them passing closer to the centre of Saltaire but seeking to minimise intrusion in environmental terms for instance by following the line of the railway.

A local campaign was mounted against all the routes and a petition with a large number of signatures was submitted. Thus my right hon. Friend the Member for Wallasey said that the completely new route should end at Cottingley Bar, and alternative solutions would be sought for the section through Saltaire and Shipley. I found the decision perverse at the time, and subsequent events have, I believe, already proved me right.

Just doing nothing could never have been an option. For everybody's sake, there cannot be and must not be a "Chalker Gap". What has happened since that anouncement was entirely predictable. The Department went out again to public consultation with alternative plans which involved gyratory traffic systems and some demolition—in effect, forcing a way through the centre of Saltaire along existing routes.

What happened? Of course the public found those plans even more undesirable than those they had seen before. Indeed, some of them said that if they had been aware of the alternatives, they might have supported earlier proposals.

Nevertheless, analysing past mistakes will get us nowhere. We must now ask where we go from here. Things have moved on in a way which demands that we reassess the situation. Traffic volumes have increased dramatically. Since the total of vehicle miles on England's roads has increased by a third. On some busy roads, the increases have been even more considerable; on motorways for instance, total traffic has gone up by about 70 per cent.

Moreover, Airedale has reflected the increase in industrial activity that other areas have experienced. Local manufacturing companies have increased their output and new retail activity is apparent for all to see.

The local chambers of trade and the Bradford chamber of commerce and industry are demanding more loudly than ever that the route should be completed to cut the delays which are threatening jobs as firms consider locating elsewhere rather than put up with all this extra cost and inconvenience.

As new sections of the Airedale route open before long, extra traffic will be attracted to it, some from the narrow moorland roads which criss-cross the area, as well as some from other A roads.

If we were to contemplate a situation where the Airedale route was completed as far as Cottingley Bar, while a further continuous section of modern and uninterrupted dual carriageway led from Shipley to the motorway south of Bradford, we would be condemning historic Saltaire to having deposited upon it in the foreseeable future up to 50, vehicles a day if the roads could carry them.

The only factors that could limit the number of vehicles would be the available amount of road space and the horrific queues. Such an outcome would be an environmental nightmare and, what is more, it would undermine the whole basis on which millions of pounds of taxpayers' money are already being spent to improve communications in the Aire valley. In response to my parliamentary question answered on 1 May concerning submissions considered in reaching a decision, the then Minister forwarded details that omitted a survey, the detailed results of which I had passed to her, which showed that more than 90 per cent.

To achieve an acceptable way out of the present impasse, two decisions are necessary. First, it must be agreed that the special historic nature of Saltaire and the protection of the immediate environment require an exceptional financial commitment on the part of the Department of Transport.

If it is necessary to construct part of the route in a cut and cover tunnel, that must be done. I believe that a financial analysis would demonstrate that a failure to complete the route would seriously undermine the economic benefits to be gained by constructing the first three stages. Secondly, it is essential that in future public consultation—and I do not think it would be right or productive to proceed without further consultation—the full range of options is put before people at the same time.

In no other way is it possible to find out what they really want. It is my belief that, given a realistic choice, most people will opt for a variation on the Department's original proposal that takes proper account of the environmental problems. It would probably incorporate a tunnel and keep well away from the historic heart of Saltaire.

Such a proposal was aired by the city council and the former county council during the previous consultative exercise. This stage represents the keystone to the entire route between upper Airedale and the motorway to the south of Bradford. If this problem can be resolved, the rest falls into place with relative ease.

I do not want to speak in detail now about the Shipley eastern bypass nor about the dualling of Canal road for which the city council has responsibility but with the Bradford spine road, of which stage 1 of the inner ring road has already been completed ahead of schedule by the council, with some funding assistance from the European regional development fund, these links constitute a chain which will dramatically improve the way in which people and goods can be transported between different parts of the district, as well as with the national motorway network.

Completion of the Bradford spine route will also incidentally enable traffic to be kept out of the centre of Bradford, providing an opportunity to transform it into a far more attractive urban area.

Between the centre of the city and the M there are two routes—Manchester road and Wakefield road—the latter of which will be incorporated in the projected Bradford spine route. The M is at present a designated district motorway, but I understand that negotiations are in hand for responsibility to be transferred to the Department of Transport.

Friend should be aware that there are already serious delays at the city end of that short stretch of motorway, and I am sure that his Department will be involved with the council in finding ways to overcome the difficulty which has essentially come about through the unexpectedly large increase in traffic to which I have already referred. Plans are afoot to "upgrade" the junction, but I don't see how other than starting from scratch.

To add to the confusion in the new link road bypassing Crosby, the A, finishes on this junction. Anyway, between Switch Island and Ormskirk, the A59 is a good dual carriageway, and former trunk route, with a few traffic lights, and roundabouts linking minor roads, so not generally flowing well. At Ormskirk, the A59 reverts to single-carriageway, on a very old bypass - the old Lancs County Council had a very enlightened and pioneering view of roadbuilding , although the effect has been negated by building houses, shops etc along its length.

The A59 has never gone through Ormskirk; on classification in the number was routed along the then-unbuilt bypass, with the road through town connecting the two sections of A59 the A North of Ormskirk the A59 is a reasonably good, albeit busy, road passing through little towns like Burscough, and villages like Rufford, before the traffic-light-controlled crossroads at Tarleton, where the A from Southport joins; this can be a bit of a bottleneck in summer.

A dangerous three lane section from here has now been two-laned, and before long we hit the Hutton bypass, a good dual carriageway, probably from the s - one of those roads with wide verges containing separate footpaths and cycleways - so much better than simply painting a foot-wide strip down the side of the existing carriageway. There was a dangerous crossroads on this stretch, which led to poor visibility - rather than shutting off the junction, they built a totally pointless roundabout instead, which slows things up a bit.

Further towards Penwortham the A59 goes over a minor road on an old railway bridge, complete with side junctions, this minor road utilises the old railway track.

We pass Lancashire Police HQ, still on an old style D2, then the road bypasses Penwortham towards the east on a new D2 to link up with the A at the Booths supermarket roundabout. The road number allocation along these new stretches are confusing. A slip road onto the east bound A59 just before the river bridge has been closed with permanent bollards, this was the original A59 from Penwortham centre.

The A59 continues over Strand Road via a flyover then on a partially dualled Marsh Lane onto Ringway, the original Preston inner-ring road s I guess. Originally the A59 ran up Fishergate Hill, Fishergate and Church Street; the main thoroughfares in Preston Centre which had become badly congested long before they were bypassed by Ringway.

However Ringway, which was built in its current form in the s now enables us to avoid the worst of Preston centre, before continuing down Stanley Street. Stanley Street is one of Britain's first multiplexes which carries the route of both A6 and A59 and still does to this day. Brockholes Brow takes us down to the M6 at Samlesbury, J31 site of that film clip I remember with the wonky signs. The original junction had 'trumpet-style' slip roads, all south of the A59 - at the other side of the A59 is the Ribble, so a conventional set up would have needed 3 bridges over the river J34 with the A was built on a similar principle, albeit an even more dangerous version.

When the M6 was rebuilt in the early s, a more conventional junction resulted, so the two slip roads plus an access road to a gravel pit on the other side of the river have their own bridges. After the M6 , the A59 heads for Blackburn and Clitheroe on a dualled section eastbound along the original carriageway, and up a fairly steep hill, westbound running on a new road alongside, on an embankment, and therefore more gradual than the westbound bit - this was probably built in the late s to tie-in with the motorway.

At the top of the hill, the A59 veers left, and runs around the perimeter of Samlesbury Aerodrome British Aerospace. This would explain why the A59 heads away from the A at Samlesbury, but almost rejoins it at Mellor Brook less than half a mile from the A After Mellor, the A59 is pretty much unimproved and is a bit of a drag as far as Langho where it meets the A and the Whalley bypass starts.

This must have been intended as a dual carriageway - the roundabout with the A is massive, and on a whopping embankment, so the A59 was obviously intended to pass underneath as a dual carriageway. The entire bypass has wide cuttings and embankments, and the bridges are wide enough to accommodate. It has "two-way traffic" signs all along it, such is the appearance of this being a dualled stretch. The section between the two bits of the A has just been dualled not really sure why , but the next bypass section Clitheroe is single, and has some dangerous crossroads, one of which has been replaced with a roundabout.

After Chatburn, we revert to the original route, and prior to , would now be in Yorkshire on the ancient boundaries, the Tykes took a huge bite out of Lancs here, even though we are clearly well to the west of the Pennine chain. A short blast up Sawley Hill was improved a number of years ago with a new three lane section.

The M was the first motorway as far as I know to be heckled to non-existence! Yet improved cross-pennine links would have dramatically improved the economy of Bradford.

I used to do this route every weekend for 3 years, the section through Bingley was dire, Bradford was no problem! Please do not copy without permission.

If you link directly to a picture held on this site, please credit where you got it from Pathetic Motorways home current former unbuilt lost secretive unfinished by region features.

Where was it? Near Keighley, Yorkshire There's no motorway there! True enough - but there was meant to be I see Yet another "unbuilt motorway"?

Yes, that's it. Well, get on with it! What happened?