Cheshire East Council has been notified by the Secretary of State for Transport today (January 27th) that the Compulsory Purchase Order (CPO) and Side Roads Order (SRO) for the road scheme have been confirmed.
Eric Pickles, Secretary of State for the department for Communities and Local Government, also confirmed the Section 19 certificate in respect of public open space to be included in the £290m project.
Confirmation of the orders now allows Stockport Council, on behalf of its partners Cheshire East and Manchester City councils, to progress the project to the construction phase.
It is anticipated that some environmental works could start before the end of February, with the main contract works commencing in March 2015. The works are expected to take around two and a half years and the road should be open to traffic by autumn 2017.
Councillor Michael Jones, Leader of Cheshire East Council said: "This announcement is great news for the North West. As part of our 'putting residents first' initiative, we are committed to developing the economy and infrastructure of Cheshire East and the wider region to ensure it remains a fantastic place to live, work visit and do business.
"SEMMMS will provide enhanced east-west strategic connectivity across the north of the Borough and improved access to employment opportunities at Manchester Airport and the Airport City Enterprise Zone.
"The announcement is a key step towards being able to deliver the Poynton Relief Road, which will relieve congestion in Poynton and provide improved connectivity to the strategic highway for the northern Macclesfield business area.
"We as a Council are committed to encouraging economic growth, nurturing new business opportunities and improving lives within the Borough. Overall, the SEMMMS scheme will bring significantly-improved connectivity and employment benefits.
"We are delighted that the Secretary of State has considered the Public Inquiry Inspector's report and confirmed the orders, which will allow an early start on the construction of the road scheme to be undertaken."
The proposed scheme will provide approximately 10km of dual carriageway, linking the A6 at Hazel Grove to the eastern end of the existing A555 at Woodford Road, Bramhall and from the western end of the existing A555 at Wilmslow Road, Handforth to Manchester Airport.
For further information on the A6 to Manchester Airport Relief Road visit www.semmms.info.
Comments
Here's what readers have had to say so far. Why not add your thoughts below.
The new dual carriageway will pass underneath the short road between the 2 roundabouts (the bridge is already built).
This is a scheme specifically designed to generate more traffic by road and by air. High Lane & Disley are already suffering from excessive car emissions & rush-hour congestion, which will be exacerbated by every single extra car- and lorry journey (the mitigation suggested by the SEMMMS team is nonsense - how can you reduce the speed limit to 30mph, when that is already the limit along much of the A6 between Hazel Grove & the Chapel bypass?). Even more aeroplanes = even more polluting, climate-changing gases pumped into the atmosphere and even worse noise disruption to residents of areas miles away from the airport (I grew up in Cheadle Heath, where conversations had to stop every few minutes as a plane screeched overhead).
The other purpose of SEMMMS (a misnomer if ever there was one, as every transport mode other than private cars & lorries has been ignored) is to facilitate the development of "Airport City", an industrial zone whose tax-free status will see businesses - and jobs - relocating from communities all over the area. This in turn will mean that, if people from places along the length of the SEMMMS road want to keep their jobs, they will need to travel along it to get to work.
Building major new roads never reduced traffic problems in the 20th century - why should it work any better in the 21st? Instead of continuing on the spiral of more cars-more roads-more cars, let's look at ways of reducing the volume of traffic; better, integrated and affordable public transport (bus, tram and rail), re-opening railway lines for freight - and making use of our canals; in the longer term, we need to work towards localising economies - building resilient communities and reducing the need for people and goods to travel long-distance.
http://bit.ly/15UTnH1
@ Bob Bracegirdle: presumably public transport will be allowed to run along this new road and, providing the services are timely and affordable, will thrive.
Here in Wilmslow, it funded several pedestrian crossings, widening of the footway under the railway bridge etc. (do you remember what that used to be like!), and a fair bit more.
Most of this happened around a decade ago - and it's only the road scheme which has repeatedly been kicked into the long grass and delayed.
It may be worth adding that the road scheme (in some guise) pre-dates SEMMMS by several decades. 50 years ago it was the favoured route for part of Manchester's outer ring road motorway - now the M60 - and as recently as the 1990s part of it was still going to be a motorway - A6(M). The short section that did get built was constructed well before SEMMMS was ever an idea.
SEMMS does not appear to have any reference to the totally stupid, London-centric vanity-project HS2 at all (unless I missed it).
I would seem sensible to finish the half-built road scheme and then take stock.