AN exhibition is set to reveal details of a £380m scheme to upgrade 12 miles of the A1 between Leeming and Barton to a three-lane motorway.

Highways Agency managers will attend the event at Catterick Racecourse to update road users and residents about the scheme, work on which started earlier this month, and about its plans to create an alternative route for local traffic.

They said work, which is expected to generate 750 jobs in the construction industry over three years, to widen an 11-mile section of the A1 between Leeming and Scotch Corner, was progressing well.

It is hoped the scheme will boost the region’s economy by creating a continuous motorway-standard route between London and Newcastle.

On completion of the upgrade, journey times between Leeming and Barton will be reduced by about 20 per cent, and over a sixty-year period, the improvements are predicted to save around 100 lives and prevent around 650 serious casualties.

The agency said preparatory work on the site had started January and the scheme remained on schedule to open to traffic in 2016 or 2017.

It said the work would see various overnight lane closures on the A1 and temporary traffic lights on local roads.

From Friday, April 4, work will get underway to install narrow lanes and 50mph speed limits on both carriageways of the A1 between Catterick North and Catterick South only.

Work on the remaining sections of the A1 is due to start after Easter, and more details will be available nearer the time.

It added work on the remaining one-mile section, between Scotch Corner and Barton, was subject to the outcome of a public inquiry into the route of the proposed local access road, which was held in February.

Highways Agency senior project manager Sandie Forte-Gill said the exhibitions would provide a change for residents and businesses to learn details of how the construction work may affect them.

She said: “We are pressing ahead with work on this important upgrade scheme, which will deliver significant benefits to road users and businesses in both the local area and beyond.”

The exhibition will be held on Friday (March 21), from 2pm to 8pm and on Saturday (March 22), from 10am to 4pm.

For details, visit www.highways.gov.uk/roads/road-projects/a1-leeming-to-barton-improvement