A MAJOR milestone has been reached in the £380m scheme to upgrade 12 miles of the A1 in North Yorkshire to motorway standard, with the completion of eight bridges.

Highways England said the project, which started in March 2014, is on schedule to open in June, with improvements to the Scotch Corner to Barton section remaining.

The scheme was announced by the then Chancellor George Osborne in 2012 after years of campaigning to improve the dual-carriageway, which due to regular congestion on the key route, was seen as a bottleneck to the North-East’s economy. There were also widespread concerns over the safety of the Leeming and Barton stretch, due to numerous local access junctions on the stretch.

Roads minister Andrew Jones has said the work to provide a missing link of motorway standard road between London and Newcastle would “make a significant difference to peoples’ lives”.

Darlington-based Cleveland Bridge UK (CBUK), which has spent 20 months fabricating and installing bridges for the road, said its work on the project had been completed with the installation of the 53-metre Fort Overbridge, Catterick.

The installation of the bridges, which range between 80 tonnes and 400 tonnes, were undertaken during scheduled closures of the A1, one of which in October sparked a wave of protests towards Highways England over warnings and diversions.

The scheme’s largest bridge, an 86.5-metre long, 398-tonne structure at Kneeton Lane, near Scotch Corner, was completed ahead of schedule allowing the A1 to be reopened sooner than planned.

CBUK also supported the widening of existing structures, including the Agricola Bridge that carries the A1 across the River Swale, south of Brompton on Swale. This required an additional 170 tonnes of steel to widen the existing bridge by seven metres either side.

Chris Droogan, managing director of CBUK, which carried out the work on behalf of Highways England’s principal contractor on the scheme, Carillion and Morgan Sindall, said: “This was a highly time-focused project involving the production and installation of around 1,600 tonnes of steel.

“Working closely with our client we have efficiently completed the delivery of the bridges, which is a significant milestone in this major civil engineering project.”

“This scheme will support the economy of the North and the companies based in the region, including Cleveland Bridge, which regularly uses the A1 to transport our streel structures around the country.”