Portsmouth road bridge given final go-ahead
£11 million of government funding given to improving Portsmouth’s Northern Road Bridge.
Major improvements to tackle a traffic bottleneck on Portsmouth’s Northern Road Bridge will go ahead thanks to £11 million of government funding confirmed today (10 September 2012) by Local Transport Minister Norman Baker.
The Department for Transport has given final approval to the scheme which will see work on a replacement bridge over the Portsmouth to London railway line at Cosham. The original bridge was built to carry a dual carriageway road but is now too weak to do so and traffic has been restricted to a single lane in each direction for a number of years.
The new bridge will allow the dual carriageway to be reinstated as well as removing any weight limit, bringing the bridge up to current national standards.
The scheme will restore the full standard of the bridge improving access to the local area and aiding the local economy by reducing congestion and ensuring that the route can be fully used, especially by the many buses which serve it.
Norman Baker said:
This is an important scheme that will restore the full capacity of this route, help boost the local economy by reducing congestion and ensure journey time reliability for bus passengers.
The £11 million we are putting into this scheme shows that the coalition government is serious about investing in the infrastructure the country needs to drive economic growth.
The Northern Road Bridge scheme was one of the schemes given funding approval last year as part of the spending review process. Work can now start on the construction with the new bridge scheduled to open in October 2013.
Notes to editors
Today’s (10 September 2012) announcement grants full (final) approval to the Northern Road Bridge scheme enabling work to begin.
The scheme, promoted Portsmouth City Council, is scheduled to open in October 2013.
The department will provide a maximum of £11.09 million towards the full scheme cost of £12.62 million.
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