First stretch of new £460m road scheme opens

The first stretch of a major road improvement scheme in Gloucestershire has opened, three years after work began.

In a key milestone for the A417 Missing Link project, a temporary new dual carriageway has opened, with the old route to and from Birdlip now permanently shut.

Crickley Hill is temporarily a single lane between Brockworth and the Air Balloon roundabout and there is a reduced speed limit of 40mph (64kmp/h) in place, with more recovery teams on standby in case of breakdowns.

The senior project manager from National Highways, Celine Acard, warned there would be "significant delays" and disruption while people get used to the changes.

Motorists travelling to and from Cirencester and Swindon will head up the new two-mile (3.2km) stretch of the A417 when they reach the top of Crickley Hill.

The route will take them through the new Shab Hill junction, which will eventually go to Birdlip.

Crickley Hill was closed over the weekend to prepare for the changes.

Gavin Jones, project director from Kier, the contractors being the construction, said he was "so proud" of the team who worked to achieve the milestone.

"They've worked so hard at the weekend to open the road for the public today," he said.

The work involved digging through Cotswold limestone to build the new A436 road, which is now open.

"This is one of the first key milestones we've hit and then we've got a few more coming up," Jones added.

The change is temporary, with more routes set to open later this summer after the Air Balloon Roundabout is taken away.

The route was "notorious for all the wrong reasons" with a "really bad accident record", said Jones.

"Everyone in the area knows about it. People avoided it because of how bad it was in terms of congestion, so I'm very happy to say it's closed as of today," he added.

The old road will be turned into a bridleway with a footpath and cycle path and in the future, drivers will be able to go straight up Crickley Hill and carry on to Cirencester and Swindon.

National Highways said the project was on target to be completed and opened in spring 2027.

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