Delays as stretch of new £460m road scheme opens
BBCMotorists using a new stretch of road that has opened three years after improvement work began have faced long delays this morning.
In a key milestone for the A417 Missing Link project, a temporary new dual carriageway has opened, with the old route to and from Birdlip now permanently shut.
However, National Highways (NH) said a broken down HGV on the new A417 road between the A46 for Brockworth and the A436 Air Balloon Roundabout caused miles of congestion earlier. The vehicle has since been recovered.
The senior project manager from NH, Celine Acard, warned there would also be "significant delays" and disruption while people get used to the changes.
Crickley Hill is temporarily a single lane between Brockworth and the Air Balloon roundabout and there is a reduced speed limit of 40mph (64kmp/h) in place, with more recovery teams on standby in case of breakdowns.
Motorists travelling to and from Cirencester and Swindon will head up the new two-mile (3.2km) stretch of the A417 when they reach the top of Crickley Hill.
The route will take them through the new Shab Hill junction, which will eventually go to Birdlip.
Crickley Hill was closed over the weekend to prepare for the changes.
The work involved digging through Cotswold limestone to build the new A436 road, which is now open.
Sarah Kenyon frequently travels along the A417 from Salisbury, Wiltshire and said it took her an extra 20 minutes to complete her journey earlier.
Kenyon said it was "fine" on Friday, but "absolute chaos" with the new route and new measures now in place.
She added there were no diversions in place and her sat nav did not help her navigate the changes.
"I carried on driving and driving and then hit a standstill. I ended up having to do a u-turn on the new bypass with many others... I then finally found signs saying how to get to Birdlip, but even that wasn't ideal," she said.
Carla Young said it took her one hour to do the school run this morning, as opposed to the usual 15 minutes.
She said the closure of one lane and the broken down HGV "caused mayhem", but added she was optimistic the project will eventually result in easier journeys.
"It just takes time to get to that point," she said.
Gavin Jones, project director from Kier, the contractors being the construction, said he was "so proud" of the team who worked to achieve the milestone.
Jones said the opening was "one of the first key milestones", with a "few more", including the opening of more routes later in the summer after the Air Balloon Roundabout is taken away.
Jones said the route had previously been "notorious for all the wrong reasons" with a "really bad accident record".
"Everyone in the area knows about it. People avoided it because of how bad it was in terms of congestion, so I'm very happy to say it's closed as of today," he added.
The old road will be turned into a bridleway with a footpath and cycle path and in the future, drivers will be able to go straight up Crickley Hill and carry on to Cirencester and Swindon.
National Highways said the project was on target to be completed and opened in spring 2027.
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