Proposed A66 Dual Carriageway Project

Consultation has been conducted by Highways England with adjacent communities on the proposals to upgrade the A66 to dual carriageway along its full length from Penrith to Scotch Corner. Details of the major project to upgrade all remaining single carriageway sections of the A66 to dual carriageway are available by connecting to the project website here:

https://highwaysengland.co.uk/projects/a66-northern-trans-pennine/

During 2021 National Highways (previously Highways England) published their Preferred Route Announcement, providing details of the likely final routes to be used for upgrade of the six remaining sections of single carriageway to dual carriageway. During the spring of 2022 this has been finalised and submitted to the Planning Inspectorate in the form of a Development Consent Order (DCO).

Following the Planning Inspectorate’s acceptance of the A66 Northern Trans-Pennine project Development Consent Order (DCO) application, communities are now able to get involved in the examination of the application if they wish.  
A ‘Section 56’ notice, has been issued, which provides information on how individuals or communities can make relevant representations to the Planning Inspectorate. 

Slide 4 in National Highways' presentation to the latest Community Liaison Group meeting (see below) indicates where the project is against the major milestones. This shows that a recommendation to the Secretary of State from the Planning Inspectorate would be expected around 12 months from now (mid-late 2023). Assuming subsequent approval by the SoS this would then be expected to lead to a start to construction some time in 2024.  

Latest presentation by National Highways on the status of the progress against key milestones (as at August 2022):



A 'fly-through' visualisation of the proposed layout of the local road section (Stephen Bank to Carkin Moor), can be viewed by clicking on this link:

https://youtu.be/ZQubd9eFMUY