An official opening ceremony has taken place in order to celebrate the completion of Cheshire’s A556 Knutsford to Bowdon dual carriageway. The official opening ceremony was held on Friday the 24th March and included the planting of a tree by Jim O’Sullivan and the Tatton MP George Osbourne. The tree was planted on the Green Bridge which is an innovative structure that crosses the road south of the A50 at Mere. This Green Bridge is a key feature of the road’s environmental measures.
The project consists of a 4-mile new road, that opened on the 6th of March, and will bypass the old A556 as well as the villages of Mere, Bucklow Hill and Over Tabley. This means that the new road should provide a faster and more reliable link in between junction 19 of the M6 and junction 7 of the M56. It is expected that this new route will be used by 50,000 vehicles which included 7,000 lorries that all rely on the connection to the motorway every day.
The Chief Executive of Highways England, Jim O’Sullivan was there for the opening ceremony, and planted a tree alongside the chair of the Northern Powerhouse Partnership, George Osbourne. The new link will provide a key link between the West Midlands and Cheshire to Greater Manchester as well as Manchester International Airport. The previous route used to be heavily congested and included a busy crossroads. The new route has been built to modern standards and should be able to provide faster journeys between the two motorway sections.
This new road is the first major project in the North West that will be delivered as part of the £15 billion investment by the Government into the road network up to 2021. Next, work will focus on turning the old A556 in to the B5569. This new B road will be a single carriageway road for use by local communities as well as a green corridor to be used by pedestrians, cyclists and horse riders.
