New year hope on York’s outer ring road

3:40pm Wednesday 19th November 2008

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YORK’S council chief says he is confident the new year will see the city receive good news in the battle to ease choking congestion on its crammed outer ring road.

A bid of around £42 million has been submitted to the Regional Transport Board for Yorkshire and the Humber which, if successful, will allow a string of major traffic schemes to be implemented in the city.

They include vital improvements to all roundabouts on the A1237 between Wetherby Road and Strensall Road, which have been earmarked as the best jam-busting method available after the immense price tag of dualling the route was revealed.

Turning the ring road into a dual carriageway would cost an estimated £264 million – £124 million more than previously predicted – and although the possibility of eventually doing this has not been ruled out, it now seems virtually certain not to happen.

A report submitted to the council’s executive, which met yesterday, says the bid for the roundabout improvements and a package of other city-wide measures – as phase two of the ambitious Access York scheme – has been placed and a decision is due after Christmas.

It was one of 12 options considered by the authority in September – including dualling the ring road between its junctions with Wetherby Road and the A19 – but has been deemed the one which would provide the most value for money and therefore be most likely to gain approval.

“It’s vital that we improve the outer ring road,” said council leader Andrew Waller.

“Easing congestion is seen by many people as a key factor for the city’s future economic success, but we recognise there is no silver bullet for doing this.

“However, we feel confident in the bid we have made – it’s realistic in its price and has been put together very well by officers who have been complimented by the Government for bids we have made in the past.

“It would have been very dangerous to put all our eggs in one basket and bid for a more expensive scheme with a lower cost benefit ratio which would have been compared against other councils’ schemes.

“The most effective way of dualling the outer ring road would have been to do it at the time it was built, but that has gone and, as has been proven, continuing to build more roads generates more traffic.”

The council also expects to hear early next year whether the Department of Transport will approve its bid for three new park-and-ride sites on the edge of the city, which, if given the go-ahead, could be operating by 2012.