Spiralling costs of a multimillion pound scheme to improve traffic on one of the main routes into Bradford will lead to huge chunks of the work being axed.
The A638 Dewsbury/Cleckheaton Sustainable Travel Corridor was drawn up to improve traffic between Dewsbury and Bradford, including through Heckmondwike and Cleckheaton.
The project would include new bus lanes, crossings, cycle lanes and improvements to the Spen Valley Greenway.
The scheme is being funded by the Government’s Transforming Cities Fund, with West Yorkshire Combined Authority and Kirklees Council delivering the project.
The original cost for the scheme was budgeted at £15.8m.
But a report that will go before the Combined Authority on Thursday reveals that the works are now expected to cost much more.
The rising cost means parts of the scheme will need to be scrapped, and extra money injected into the budget to make sure it still goes ahead.
The report reveals that “phase three” of the works, which includes new crossings along the route, access points, and public realm improvements, will be “de-scoped” to save £4.6m.
And the authority will be asked to provide an extra £1,760,282 of funding, taking the total cost of the project to £17,560,259.
Members of the Authority will be asked to approve the changes at Thursday’s meeting.
Explaining why the scheme is needed, the report says: “High traffic volumes are experienced on this corridor.
Image: West Yorkshire Combined Authority
“This is due to increased reliance on car travel and lack of viable travel alternatives. The high frequency 268 bus service serves the full route from Oakenshaw to Dewsbury on the A638 but there are only two small sections of bus lanes and limited bus priority along the route.
“This is currently having an impact on the reliability of this key core service.”
Detailing the changes to the project, members will be told that Phase One, improvements to the Spen Valley Greenway, will remain, as will Phase Two, which includes a controversial proposal to create 0.7km of new bus lane on the southbound approach of M62 Chain Bar Roundabout, 1.5km of cycle lane between Cleckheaton and Heckmondwike town centres and new signal crossings at junctions at Market Street, Heckmondwike.
But works that make up Phase Three, including refuge island upgrades immediately south of chain bar roundabout on Bradford Road, public space improvements at Cleckheaton town centre, pedestrian crossings and various parking restrictions along the route, will be dropped.
Explaining why the cost of the scheme has risen, the report blames a “lack of maturity in costings” when the full business case was being drawn up.
It adds: “Lessons have been learnt by the scheme promoter and greater scrutiny of costs at full approval has now been now adopted as standard across all schemes to mitigate similar issues in the future.”
It said other issues that led to costs rising included design changes due to issues acquiring land for the bus lane approaching Chain Bar, and cost estimates from utility companies coming in higher than originally budgeted.
The report says: “Kirklees Council has been working with the contractor to value engineer the design to minimise the scale of the cost increase.
“This exercise has confirmed delivery of Phase Two in full to be desirable as the Bradford Road bus lane will significantly increase reliability of high frequency bus services using the route, benefitting the current and future franchised bus network.
“Prioritising completion of this phase maximises value for money and return on investment.
“Phase Three interventions are more modest in scale and impact. It is therefore proposed that Phase 3 is descoped in its entirety to save approximately £4,600,000.”
It says it is important that Phase 2 still go ahead as it will “Improve journey time reliability for buses along Bradford Road. This supports the stability of the bus network and future operation of buses under franchising.
“Delivery of the bus lane on approach to Chain Bar is expected to reduce peak bus journey times by approximately one minute on average and largely eliminate journey time variability of up to seven minutes at peak times and at times when the Chain Bar roundabout is heavily congested.”
The Combined Authority hopes the works will lead to a 10 per cent increase in bus patronage along the A638 through Cleckheaton and Heckmondwike, a 100 per cent increase in cycle trips on the A638, a 40 per cent increase in cycle trips on the Spen Valley Greenway and a 15 per cent increase in walking trips on the Greenway.”
The work is expected to be completed by September 2026.
