WORK could start within months to build a bridge over an accident blackspot on the A19.

The Highways Agency plans to begin building a flyover at the Black Swan crossroads between Ingleby Arncliffe and Crathorne by the end of the year.

The cost of the bridge has previously been estimated at £3m.

The gap in the central reservation at the crossroads was closed in July 2004, initially as an 18-month experiment, after four fatal accidents in five years.

The closure was later made permanent after the Highways Agency produced figures to show the number of accidents had fallen.

On Monday, members of North Yorkshire County Council's Hambleton area committee will be asked to back the construction of a bridge, known as a grade-separated interchange, to carry two-way traffic over the A19. It will have a two-metre footpath and equestrian parapets.

The Highways Agency is in the process of publishing legal orders and carrying out statutory consultations.

Gordon Gresty, the council's director of business and environmental services, said: "If there are no significant objections to the orders and no land issues, the work could start on the bridge by the end of 2007."

People living in the area have long campaigned for a bridge, saying closing the central reservation has divided the communities of Hutton Rudby and East and West Rounton.

Parish councillors have also complained about the increase in traffic through villages on either side of the A19, but Mr Gresty said funding was unlikely to be forthcoming for improvements to local roads.

"The closure of the central reserve gap on the A19 has resulted in an increase in traffic flow on these minor roads and frustrations to the drivers who have been required to take a longer diversion route to get across the A19, resulting in travelling a greater distance and a lengthy car journey," he said.

"Requests have been made to the Highways Agency on behalf of these communities for funding to facilitate works on the local road network.

"While the Highways Agency accepts the transferred traffic is as a consequence of the closure on the A19, it has also confirmed that such a request would be very unlikely to meet their criteria for funding.

"If pursued in the current climate, such requests could prejudice the chances of funding construction of the grade-separated interchange."