The A4146 Stoke Hammond and Linslade Western Bypass is set to be officially opened on Friday September 14 with a cavalcade led by a bus to highlight the significance of the new road as a public transport route.

The LBO was given a preview of the nine-kilometre-long dual carriageway last week in the company of Bucks County Council portfolio holder for transportation, Cllr Val Letheren, Nick Henstock of the major projects implementation group and Gary Bartlett.

Contractors Alfred McAlpine were awarded the contract for the job on February 25, 2005, and work began following a short but bitter protest by environmental campaigners.

More than 700,000 man hours later the job is almost complete at a total cost of £60 million, including the Stoke Hammond Northern Link which was constructed by Fitzpatrick Contractors Ltd and opened in February 2004.

The bill includes an overspend of £5 million due to a delay caused by unforeseen adverse ground conditions during excavations.

Bucks and Beds County Councils are hopeful however that discussions with
the South East England Regional Authority, the Government Office for the South East and the Department for Transport will result in additional money being made available.

Whatever the cost, it's money well spent said Cllr Letheren, who went on to say that the new road would cut 20 minutes off a journey between Aylesbury and Milton Keynes and was part of a broader scheme that would improve life for people living in villages off the route.

"We are delighted that this scheme is nearing its completion," she said.
"It is being delivered as part of a wider package that also includes new bus services for Milton Keynes, Leighton Buzzard, and Stoke Hammond and traffic improvement schemes for Wing, Soulbury, Stoke Hammond and Linslade, plus improved cycling and walking facilities.

"We are still hopeful that monies may be found from central Government to allow for a bridge over the new road to be built at the Wing roundabout in due course."


The bypass has been extensively landscaped to reduce noise nuisance to a minimum and 142,000 native trees planted along the route.

Seven balancing ponds have been created with the capacity to hold 21,000 cubic metres of storm water and planted with 14,000 reeds and other aquatics.

Seven badger tunnels have also been built with 12,500 metres of netting to keep the animals off the carriageway and a total 40,000 metres of drains laid to channel rain water away.

The managing director of McAlpine's civil engineering team, Steve Smith, said the bypass had proved to be a technically challenging project featuring seven major bridges and underpasses, the excavation of over a million cubic metres of earth and the use of nearly 200,000 tons of granular material to construct the road pavement.

"The scheme is now nearing completion and will be delivered by autumn 2007 in line with original requirements, he said.



"With the successful completion of the A4146 Stoke Hammond and Linslade Western Bypass we are delighted to have delivered another major transport scheme for a key client and more importantly with an outstanding safety record which is a credit to the integrated team."