{"id":533212,"date":"2025-11-24T12:45:14","date_gmt":"2025-11-24T12:45:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.constructionnews.co.uk\/?p=533212"},"modified":"2025-11-24T16:21:10","modified_gmt":"2025-11-24T16:21:10","slug":"balfour-beatty-bypass-costs-rise-10-due-to-funding-delay","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.constructionnews.co.uk\/contractors\/balfour-beatty\/balfour-beatty-bypass-costs-rise-10-due-to-funding-delay-24-11-2025\/","title":{"rendered":"Balfour Beatty bypass costs rise 10% due to funding delay"},"content":{"rendered":"

Costs on a Balfour Beatty bypass scheme in Cheshire will surpass \u00a3100m after funding delays halted the project.<\/p>\n

The \u00a398m Middlewich Eastern Bypass has been held up due to delays in government funding being signed off causing the cost of the project to rise by \u00a39.7m, according to a local council committee.<\/p>\n

Cheshire East Council\u2019s corporate policy committee said the 2.6km bypass, which Balfour Beatty<\/a> is working on, is crucial for nearly 2,000 new homes planned nearby, and that cancelling the project would \u201csignificantly\u201d increase the likelihood of the council going bankrupt.<\/p>\n

In a report published last week, the committee said a delay to \u00a347.8m worth of government funding for the project \u201cimpacted on the construction programme and caused increased cost pressures because of inflation and the need to refresh certain elements of work\u201d.<\/p>\n

It had expected the funding to be confirmed in February, but confirmation only came through in July<\/a>. The council now expects work to start early next year, almost a year later than planned.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe delay to the commencement of the scheme has resulted in an increase to the scheme cost estimate to \u00a3107.67m,\u201d it added.<\/p>\n

The committee said the funds should be redirected from other schemes rather than through increased council borrowing.<\/p>\n

The Department for Transport (DfT) called the council’s claims “untrue”, adding that all road schemes must go through a “rigorous review and assessment process”.<\/p>\n

Balfour Beatty was appointed to the scheme in September 2023.<\/p>\n

So far, Cheshire East Council has spent \u00a327.9m developing the scheme, which the committee warned would be lost if the project was axed.<\/p>\n

It said cancelling the scheme would put \u201cadditional pressure upon the council\u2019s current revenue financial position\u201d and make the issuing of a section 114 bankruptcy notice \u201csignificantly more likely\u201d.<\/p>\n

A section 114 notice would prohibit it from further spending, except for funding statutory services.<\/p>\n

Councils including Croydon, Thurrock and Nottingham have all issued them in recent years.<\/p>\n

The council previously called the bypass a \u201cvital\u201d piece of infrastructure.<\/p>\n

The committee said mothballing the scheme in anticipation of later funding would push costs up further due to inflation, and that the DfT may withhold its \u00a347.8m grant if that decision is taken.<\/p>\n

Cheshire East Council will decide on the future of the project on Thursday (27 November).<\/p>\n

The council said the scheme would unlock as many as 1,950 new homes and create up to 6,500 jobs, as well as relieving \u201csevere congestion\u201d at the junction between the A54 and A533 and improving air quality and noise levels in local areas.<\/p>\n

A DfT spokesperson said: \u201cThese claims are untrue \u2013 all road schemes go through a rigorous review and assessment process so that all funding awarded is good value for money for taxpayers.\u201d<\/p>\n

Cheshire East Council and Balfour Beatty declined to comment.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Costs on a Balfour Beatty bypass scheme in Cheshire will surpass \u00a3100m after funding delays halted the project. The \u00a398m Middlewich Eastern Bypass has been held up due to delays in government funding being signed off causing the cost of the project to rise by \u00a39.7m, according to a local council committee. Cheshire East Council\u2019s …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":90643,"featured_media":533236,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ep_exclude_from_search":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[527,549,565],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-533212","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-balfour-beatty","category-civils","category-government","issue-online-news"],"yoast_head":"\nBalfour Beatty bypass costs rise 10% due to funding delay | Construction News<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Costs on a Balfour Beatty bypass scheme in Cheshire will surpass \u00a3100m after funding delays halted the project. The \u00a398m Middlewich Eastern Bypass has\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.constructionnews.co.uk\/contractors\/balfour-beatty\/balfour-beatty-bypass-costs-rise-10-due-to-funding-delay-24-11-2025\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_GB\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Balfour Beatty bypass costs rise 10% due to funding delay\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Costs on a Balfour Beatty bypass scheme in Cheshire will surpass \u00a3100m after funding delays halted the project. The \u00a398m Middlewich Eastern Bypass has\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.constructionnews.co.uk\/contractors\/balfour-beatty\/balfour-beatty-bypass-costs-rise-10-due-to-funding-delay-24-11-2025\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Construction News\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/CN.community\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2025-11-24T12:45:14+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2025-11-24T16:21:10+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/cdn.ca.emap.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/8\/2025\/11\/middlewich-eastern-bypass.webp\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"620\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"414\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/webp\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Joshua Stein\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@CNplus\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@CNplus\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Joshua Stein\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Estimated reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"3 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.constructionnews.co.uk\/contractors\/balfour-beatty\/balfour-beatty-bypass-costs-rise-10-due-to-funding-delay-24-11-2025\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.constructionnews.co.uk\/contractors\/balfour-beatty\/balfour-beatty-bypass-costs-rise-10-due-to-funding-delay-24-11-2025\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"Joshua Stein\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.constructionnews.co.uk\/#\/schema\/person\/482eae6a8521cf09396402a7e955effc\"},\"headline\":\"Balfour Beatty bypass costs rise 10% due to funding delay\",\"datePublished\":\"2025-11-24T12:45:14+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2025-11-24T16:21:10+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.constructionnews.co.uk\/contractors\/balfour-beatty\/balfour-beatty-bypass-costs-rise-10-due-to-funding-delay-24-11-2025\/\"},\"wordCount\":467,\"commentCount\":0,\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.constructionnews.co.uk\/contractors\/balfour-beatty\/balfour-beatty-bypass-costs-rise-10-due-to-funding-delay-24-11-2025\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/cdn.ca.emap.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/8\/2025\/11\/middlewich-eastern-bypass.webp\",\"articleSection\":[\"Balfour Beatty\",\"Civils\",\"Government\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-GB\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.constructionnews.co.uk\/contractors\/balfour-beatty\/balfour-beatty-bypass-costs-rise-10-due-to-funding-delay-24-11-2025\/#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.constructionnews.co.uk\/contractors\/balfour-beatty\/balfour-beatty-bypass-costs-rise-10-due-to-funding-delay-24-11-2025\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.constructionnews.co.uk\/contractors\/balfour-beatty\/balfour-beatty-bypass-costs-rise-10-due-to-funding-delay-24-11-2025\/\",\"name\":\"Balfour Beatty bypass costs rise 10% due to funding delay | Construction News\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.constructionnews.co.uk\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.constructionnews.co.uk\/contractors\/balfour-beatty\/balfour-beatty-bypass-costs-rise-10-due-to-funding-delay-24-11-2025\/#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.constructionnews.co.uk\/contractors\/balfour-beatty\/balfour-beatty-bypass-costs-rise-10-due-to-funding-delay-24-11-2025\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/cdn.ca.emap.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/8\/2025\/11\/middlewich-eastern-bypass.webp\",\"datePublished\":\"2025-11-24T12:45:14+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2025-11-24T16:21:10+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.constructionnews.co.uk\/#\/schema\/person\/482eae6a8521cf09396402a7e955effc\"},\"description\":\"Costs on a Balfour Beatty bypass scheme in Cheshire will surpass \u00a3100m after funding delays halted the project. The \u00a398m Middlewich Eastern Bypass has\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.constructionnews.co.uk\/contractors\/balfour-beatty\/balfour-beatty-bypass-costs-rise-10-due-to-funding-delay-24-11-2025\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-GB\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.constructionnews.co.uk\/contractors\/balfour-beatty\/balfour-beatty-bypass-costs-rise-10-due-to-funding-delay-24-11-2025\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-GB\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.constructionnews.co.uk\/contractors\/balfour-beatty\/balfour-beatty-bypass-costs-rise-10-due-to-funding-delay-24-11-2025\/#primaryimage\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/cdn.ca.emap.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/8\/2025\/11\/middlewich-eastern-bypass.webp\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/cdn.ca.emap.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/8\/2025\/11\/middlewich-eastern-bypass.webp\",\"width\":1024,\"height\":683},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.constructionnews.co.uk\/contractors\/balfour-beatty\/balfour-beatty-bypass-costs-rise-10-due-to-funding-delay-24-11-2025\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/www.constructionnews.co.uk\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Balfour Beatty bypass costs rise 10% due to funding delay\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.constructionnews.co.uk\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.constructionnews.co.uk\/\",\"name\":\"Construction News\",\"description\":\"Read UK Construction Industry News, Analysis, Opinion and data\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/www.constructionnews.co.uk\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":{\"@type\":\"PropertyValueSpecification\",\"valueRequired\":true,\"valueName\":\"search_term_string\"}}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-GB\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.constructionnews.co.uk\/#\/schema\/person\/482eae6a8521cf09396402a7e955effc\",\"name\":\"Joshua Stein\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-GB\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.constructionnews.co.uk\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/09661283414c6a1a39b5867f8375fd1a\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/389df7f699e66c778382dc9b75d0d431e05c3bcf365a0418b8e7901b77e40c4b?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/389df7f699e66c778382dc9b75d0d431e05c3bcf365a0418b8e7901b77e40c4b?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"caption\":\"Joshua Stein\"},\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.constructionnews.co.uk\/author\/joshua-stein\/\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO Premium plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Balfour Beatty bypass costs rise 10% due to funding delay | Construction News","description":"Costs on a Balfour Beatty bypass scheme in Cheshire will surpass \u00a3100m after funding delays halted the project. The \u00a398m Middlewich Eastern Bypass has","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.constructionnews.co.uk\/contractors\/balfour-beatty\/balfour-beatty-bypass-costs-rise-10-due-to-funding-delay-24-11-2025\/","og_locale":"en_GB","og_type":"article","og_title":"Balfour Beatty bypass costs rise 10% due to funding delay","og_description":"Costs on a Balfour Beatty bypass scheme in Cheshire will surpass \u00a3100m after funding delays halted the project. The \u00a398m Middlewich Eastern Bypass has","og_url":"https:\/\/www.constructionnews.co.uk\/contractors\/balfour-beatty\/balfour-beatty-bypass-costs-rise-10-due-to-funding-delay-24-11-2025\/","og_site_name":"Construction News","article_publisher":"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/CN.community","article_published_time":"2025-11-24T12:45:14+00:00","article_modified_time":"2025-11-24T16:21:10+00:00","og_image":[{"url":"https:\/\/cdn.ca.emap.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/8\/2025\/11\/middlewich-eastern-bypass.webp","width":620,"height":414,"type":"image\/webp"}],"author":"Joshua Stein","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_creator":"@CNplus","twitter_site":"@CNplus","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"Joshua Stein","Estimated reading time":"3 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"Article","@id":"https:\/\/www.constructionnews.co.uk\/contractors\/balfour-beatty\/balfour-beatty-bypass-costs-rise-10-due-to-funding-delay-24-11-2025\/#article","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.constructionnews.co.uk\/contractors\/balfour-beatty\/balfour-beatty-bypass-costs-rise-10-due-to-funding-delay-24-11-2025\/"},"author":{"name":"Joshua Stein","@id":"https:\/\/www.constructionnews.co.uk\/#\/schema\/person\/482eae6a8521cf09396402a7e955effc"},"headline":"Balfour Beatty bypass costs rise 10% due to funding delay","datePublished":"2025-11-24T12:45:14+00:00","dateModified":"2025-11-24T16:21:10+00:00","mainEntityOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.constructionnews.co.uk\/contractors\/balfour-beatty\/balfour-beatty-bypass-costs-rise-10-due-to-funding-delay-24-11-2025\/"},"wordCount":467,"commentCount":0,"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.constructionnews.co.uk\/contractors\/balfour-beatty\/balfour-beatty-bypass-costs-rise-10-due-to-funding-delay-24-11-2025\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/cdn.ca.emap.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/8\/2025\/11\/middlewich-eastern-bypass.webp","articleSection":["Balfour Beatty","Civils","Government"],"inLanguage":"en-GB","potentialAction":[{"@type":"CommentAction","name":"Comment","target":["https:\/\/www.constructionnews.co.uk\/contractors\/balfour-beatty\/balfour-beatty-bypass-costs-rise-10-due-to-funding-delay-24-11-2025\/#respond"]}]},{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.constructionnews.co.uk\/contractors\/balfour-beatty\/balfour-beatty-bypass-costs-rise-10-due-to-funding-delay-24-11-2025\/","url":"https:\/\/www.constructionnews.co.uk\/contractors\/balfour-beatty\/balfour-beatty-bypass-costs-rise-10-due-to-funding-delay-24-11-2025\/","name":"Balfour Beatty bypass costs rise 10% due to funding delay | Construction News","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.constructionnews.co.uk\/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.constructionnews.co.uk\/contractors\/balfour-beatty\/balfour-beatty-bypass-costs-rise-10-due-to-funding-delay-24-11-2025\/#primaryimage"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.constructionnews.co.uk\/contractors\/balfour-beatty\/balfour-beatty-bypass-costs-rise-10-due-to-funding-delay-24-11-2025\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/cdn.ca.emap.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/8\/2025\/11\/middlewich-eastern-bypass.webp","datePublished":"2025-11-24T12:45:14+00:00","dateModified":"2025-11-24T16:21:10+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.constructionnews.co.uk\/#\/schema\/person\/482eae6a8521cf09396402a7e955effc"},"description":"Costs on a Balfour Beatty bypass scheme in Cheshire will surpass \u00a3100m after funding delays halted the project. The \u00a398m Middlewich Eastern Bypass has","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.constructionnews.co.uk\/contractors\/balfour-beatty\/balfour-beatty-bypass-costs-rise-10-due-to-funding-delay-24-11-2025\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-GB","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.constructionnews.co.uk\/contractors\/balfour-beatty\/balfour-beatty-bypass-costs-rise-10-due-to-funding-delay-24-11-2025\/"]}]},{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-GB","@id":"https:\/\/www.constructionnews.co.uk\/contractors\/balfour-beatty\/balfour-beatty-bypass-costs-rise-10-due-to-funding-delay-24-11-2025\/#primaryimage","url":"https:\/\/cdn.ca.emap.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/8\/2025\/11\/middlewich-eastern-bypass.webp","contentUrl":"https:\/\/cdn.ca.emap.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/8\/2025\/11\/middlewich-eastern-bypass.webp","width":1024,"height":683},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.constructionnews.co.uk\/contractors\/balfour-beatty\/balfour-beatty-bypass-costs-rise-10-due-to-funding-delay-24-11-2025\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.constructionnews.co.uk\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Balfour Beatty bypass costs rise 10% due to funding delay"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.constructionnews.co.uk\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.constructionnews.co.uk\/","name":"Construction News","description":"Read UK Construction Industry News, Analysis, Opinion and data","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.constructionnews.co.uk\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-GB"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.constructionnews.co.uk\/#\/schema\/person\/482eae6a8521cf09396402a7e955effc","name":"Joshua Stein","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-GB","@id":"https:\/\/www.constructionnews.co.uk\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/09661283414c6a1a39b5867f8375fd1a","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/389df7f699e66c778382dc9b75d0d431e05c3bcf365a0418b8e7901b77e40c4b?s=96&d=mm&r=g","contentUrl":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/389df7f699e66c778382dc9b75d0d431e05c3bcf365a0418b8e7901b77e40c4b?s=96&d=mm&r=g","caption":"Joshua Stein"},"url":"https:\/\/www.constructionnews.co.uk\/author\/joshua-stein\/"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.constructionnews.co.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/533212","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.constructionnews.co.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.constructionnews.co.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.constructionnews.co.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/90643"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.constructionnews.co.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=533212"}],"version-history":[{"count":14,"href":"https:\/\/www.constructionnews.co.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/533212\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":533258,"href":"https:\/\/www.constructionnews.co.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/533212\/revisions\/533258"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.constructionnews.co.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/533236"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.constructionnews.co.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=533212"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.constructionnews.co.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=533212"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.constructionnews.co.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=533212"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}