MUCH needed road and junction upgrades in Catterick Garrison have been put on hold due to complications with power cabling which will cause “major disruption”.

Work to deliver the £1.6m road improvement programme, run jointly between North Yorkshire County Council and Richmondshire District Council, was due to start in January, but will now take place between April and October.

The highways works are made up of three schemes: a major upgrade of the signalised junction at the White Shops, Catterick Garrison; a change in priority at Catterick Bridge junction; and a signal upgrade at Scorton crossroads.

The White Shops junction upgrade was scheduled for January but Northern Power Grid has advised the works will affect a significant power cable, and the necessary diverting of the cable will cause major disruption to residents and businesses.

The two other schemes at Catterick Bridge and Scorton Crossroads will start in February as planned, to be completed before April 2016.

“We have explored a number of possible solutions for the White Shops scheme with Northern Power Grid” said county councillor Don Mackenzie, executive member for highways.

“But the work to divert the cable will be significant and the associated disruption between January and March, at a time when the weather could be challenging, would make life very difficult for local residents and businesses.

“For this reason, following discussions with the local enterprise partnership, we have agreed that we can programme the White Shops upgrade later in 2016, when it can fit in with the NPG works and when the weather is better.

“An ideal opportunity would be to start the works in the summer holidays, which would minimise disruption to the highway network further.”

The aim of the programme is to enable extensive town and housing development at Catterick, one of the largest military bases in Europe, and to secure employment growth for the area.

The York, North Yorkshire and East Riding Local Enterprise Partnership is providing £1.2m towards this major investment, with £400,000 coming from the county council.

The works will provide much needed junction improvements along the A6136 to help create 1,900 new homes and hundreds of jobs as well as key transport links and fast access to and from the A1.

The improvements will also improve traffic flow between the A1, Colburn and Catterick Garrison town centre along the A6136.