A new £100 million link road that is hoped to alleviate “terrible” congestion in Newark once and for all has opened four months ahead of schedule.
The new southern link road, known as Middlebeck Way, now connects the A1 to the A46, having opened just after midday on Monday (27 April).
It runs through the new Middlebeck housing estate, a 3,000-home development to the south of Newark.
The project, led by Urban and Civic, has been completed months ahead of a planned September opening and was on budget too.
Residents and businesses in the area have welcomed the scheme.
George Edwards, who has been working at the family-owned Gannets café since 2021, said the new road presents the popular business with a new opportunity.
“We’ve got a lot of residents at the minute, and I think it will just open us up to a new clientele,” he said.
“We really like our local residents. This is why Middlebeck is such a great community, because everyone seems to know each other, so you see a lot of the same faces, and that is lovely to see. But having two of the busiest local roads connected by one flyover opens us up to a new range of clients.”
Edward Smeeton, who has lived on the estate for five years, said: “I go to the south a lot, I use the A46 a lot, and it is just going to be a dream to drive from here to that road and get on it.
“I wouldn’t say it was a nightmare [before], but it was just a pain: terrible roads. Newark has got terrible traffic problems.”
At peak times in the mornings and evenings, 900 cars per hour could use the three-mile (4.9 km) long route.
Some residents expressed concerns over the traffic levels increasing through the new estate, but Mr Smeeton added: “You can’t hold back progress. You’ve got to have the roads. It might draw traffic away from Newark as well, so it is a win-win.”
Yvonne Wilkinson, who has lived on the new Middlebeck estate for the past three years, also hopes the new road will draw traffic out of Newark to ease congestion.
She said the road has been on the cards for a long time, and said rising traffic levels were to be expected. She added: “I feel for the residents of Hawton, but I think they will be delighted it’s opening four months ahead.
“With a new development, this is my third new build I’ve lived in, with three different developers, and it is what you expect is going to happen. As long as the salespeople have been straight with you, the relief road has been on the cards for a long time.”
In total, £65 million of the road’s budget came from Urban and Civic, while the Government, Newark and Sherwood District Council, Nottinghamshire County Council, and other partners funded the rest.
Asked how it was delivered ahead of time and on budget, Nigel Hugill, the chief executive of Urban and Civic, said: “It was a long time in the making. The amount of preparation we were able to do meant the designs were completely fully formed, and all of those things helped. Then we’ve been quite lucky with the weather. We were able to crack on; we haven’t needed the contingency.”
Councillor Paul Peacock, leader of Newark and Sherwood District Council, said: “Newark, for a while, has had a problem with congestion in the town centre. It is difficult to get through and around. Obviously, this road will alleviate some of that congestion.”
Newark Town Board co-chair Penny Taylor added: “It’s about allowing people who need to go into the town centre to do so efficiently and to support the town centre businesses that we’ve got, but also to allow people who don’t need to go through the town centre to have a different route to get to their destination.”
