{"id":466446,"date":"2022-10-03T12:26:47","date_gmt":"2022-10-03T11:26:47","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.constructionnews.co.uk\/?p=466446"},"modified":"2022-10-03T12:26:47","modified_gmt":"2022-10-03T11:26:47","slug":"skanskas-500m-road-upgrade-faces-legal-challenge","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.constructionnews.co.uk\/legal\/skanskas-500m-road-upgrade-faces-legal-challenge-03-10-2022\/","title":{"rendered":"Skanska’s \u00a3500m road upgrade faces legal challenge"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Department for Transport (DfT) is facing a legal challenge over its decision to approve the \u00a31bn A428 improvement scheme due to be built by Skanska.<\/span><\/p>\n

Last year, the contractor won the race to build a new dual carriageway<\/a> between Milton Keynes and Cambridge in the East of England. The governmnet has said the works will ensure a “reliable connection” between the Black Cat roundabout and Caxton Gibbet.<\/p>\n

But Transport Action Network (TAN) has now lodged a legal challenge over the scheme.<\/span><\/p>\n

The campaign group argued the scheme is one of the highest carbon-emitting programmes in the current road building programme, known as RIS2. <\/span><\/p>\n

TAN also states that the project fails to uphold the government\u2019s own environmental policy, and will result in a significant loss of hedgerow habitat.<\/span><\/p>\n

Chris Todd, TAN director, said: \u201cThe A428 is one of the biggest climate busting schemes in the government’s roads programme. Yet the impact on regional and local carbon targets has been completely ignored.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cSimilarly, before Liz Truss\u2019s government has reformed environmental protections we are seeing existing policy sidelined. It would seem that the attack on nature has already started.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

The current legal challenge follows protests against similar projects, such as the A303 Stonehenge scheme<\/a>, and the planned A47 dual carriageway in Norfolk.<\/span><\/p>\n

Todd added that the A428 scheme would treble road capacity for the majority of the length of the upgrade and is, as such, an unwarranted project. \u201cIt will increase traffic on the surrounding road network, undermining the economy while driving up emissions.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cGiven that we need to \u2018use our cars less’, it\u2019s madness to be building new roads that increase traffic.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

If completed, the scheme would see the upgrade of 16km of road between Black Cat roundabout and St Neots and Caxton Gibbet, and incorporates a number of junction improvements, including with the A1.<\/span><\/p>\n

The project would also see a new three-tier junction at the Black Cat roundabout, in addition to the creation of new slip roads and up to three bridges over the new dual carriageway.<\/span><\/p>\n

The government gave the scheme planning consent in August<\/a> after the then transport secretary Grant Shapps approved a Development Consent Order (DCO) for the scheme. The new road had been scheduled to open in 2026.<\/span><\/p>\n

Last month, the government signalled that it would aim to accelerate the building of major UK infrastructure schemes by looking to change planning laws and judicial reviews<\/a> to ensure that environmental concerns cannot hold up projects.<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Department for Transport (DfT) is facing a legal challenge over its decision to approve the \u00a31bn A428 improvement scheme due to be built by Skanska. Last year, the contractor won the race to build a new dual carriageway between Milton Keynes and Cambridge in the East of England. The governmnet has said the works …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":19441,"featured_media":434366,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ep_exclude_from_search":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[549,565,578,2164,543],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-466446","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-civils","category-government","category-legal","category-news","category-skanska","issue-online-news"],"yoast_head":"\nSkanska's \u00a3500m road upgrade faces legal challenge | Construction News<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"The Department for Transport (DfT) is facing a legal challenge over its decision to approve the \u00a31bn A428 improvement scheme due to be built by Skanska.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" 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