I am helping build Blackpool's newest road - apprentices play their part in £18.5m road regeneration project
Work to construct a new road in Blackpool is on schedule - with three apprentices among those who will be able to say 'I helped build it'.
Keegan Heneghan, 20, from Blackpool town centre, Myles Richard, 19, from Cleveleys, and Owen Brown, 20, from Mereside, have all found work on the £18.5m project at Blackpool Airport Enterprise Zone.
All three are completing their apprenticeships on the scheme with the main contractor George Cox & Sons, spending four days a week working as groundworkers, while also completing their NVQ Level 2s in Groundwork with Preston College.
Once open later next year, the new road will connect Common Edge Road with Blackpool Business Park on Amy Johnson Way, as well as widening Common Edge Road and improving the junction at School Road.
Work includes kerbing, flagging, drainage, block paving and resurfacing andhas involved clearing the land, as well as installing better drainage and redirecting utility supplies.
Myles said: “The work is different to what I thought but we’re on site all the time. I’m now hoping to progress to quantity surveying and stay working for George Cox.
“It will be quite cool to come down here once we’re completed and tell everybody ‘I built that road and am helping to make Blackpool great’.”
The scheme is aimed at reducing traffic congestion on the business park, as well as providing a new access for residents to reach Squires Gate Lane. It will also create 10.5 hectares of land for new businesses to move onto once complete.
The council has pledged to keep traffic disruption on Common Edge Road to a minimum while work continues, with two-way traffic maintained so far.
Coun Mark Smith, cabinet member for economy and built environment at Blackpool Council, said: “So far, the contractor has made good progress on the new road, while meeting our expectations for contractors to support local people and companies, by hiring locally where possible, creating apprenticeships and sub-contracting work to companies in Blackpool and on the Enterprise Zone.”
Support to build the new access road at the Enterprise Zone has been provided through a £7.5m grant from UK Government.