Here's why another £50K is being spent on new £207m M55 link road

Just over a year after the £207m Preston Western Distributor dual carriageway opened, Lancashire County Council has ordered a “monitoring and evaluation” analysis of the scheme.

It will be carried out over the course of the remainder of the year and will consider, amongst other things, the difference the two-and-a-half-mile route - now known as Edith Rigby Way - has so far made to congestion on surrounding roads.

The road - which connects a new junction 2 on the M55 at Higher Bartle to the A583 at Riversway and Blackpool Road to - was designed to facilitate the building of more than 5,500 new homes in North West Preston over the two decades up to the mid-2030s.

The assessment of the Preston Western Distributor’s benefits will be carried out by Jacobs UK Ltd. at a cost to County Hall of almost £50,000.

County Cllr Aidy Riggott, cabinet member for economic development and growth at Lancashire County Council, said: "The new road was built to improve journey times and reduce through-traffic on nearby local and residential roads, while also supporting current and future housing and business growth.

“A recent traffic count on Edith Rigby Way, towards the motorway junction, showed that 17,000 vehicles use it each weekday with more than 100,000 vehicles in total using the road each week, including weekends.

"This initial report, one year-on from the opening of these roads, will be followed by further monitoring over the next four years. This will help us to find out more about the successes and benefits which have come from this project and lays the groundwork for us to consider further such schemes as part of the imminent HS2/Network North dividend announced by the last government.

“We will then prepare another report five years after the opening with a detailed evaluation of the scheme, following the Department for Transport's guidance," he added.

The county council is preparing to bid for Network North funding - money diverted from the scrapped northern leg of HS2 - to help finance its £70.7m revamp of the A582, between Lostock Hall and Penwortham, changes to the M65 terminus roundabout, in preparation for the new Lancashire Central retail and industrial development, and traffic-calming measures along the Leyland Road corridor.