PROJECT NEWS

PROJECT NEWS

Pegswood bypass now open

On Febrary 13th 2007 the Pegswood Bypass was opened 10 weeks ahead of schedule.

The £9m Pegswood Bypass – a 2.7km single carriageway on the A197 linking Ashington and Morpeth - will take thousands of vehicles a day out of the former pit community.

The bypass was funded with £3 million from Northumberland County Council and £6.2 million from the Department for Transport.

Jim BurleyHighways bosses invited local bypass campaigner and Pegswood Parish Council chairman Jim Burley to have the privilege of being the first motorist on the new bypass today (Tuesday).

The work has taken around 58 weeks from start to finish, and has been completed 10 weeks ahead of program. The bypass was designed by the n3 group – an ongoing partnership between Northumberland County Council, Carillion plc and Faber Maunsell that provides a one-stop-shop to design and build major road schemes.

Councillor Peter Hillman, Deputy Leader of Northumberland County Council, said: “I am delighted that the bypass has finally been completed.

“The people of Pegswood can look forward to a safer and quieter life, free of the noise, dirt and worries that thousands of vehicles a day passing through a quiet village brings.

“It is proof of the quality of our highways staff and partners who have helped us build this road that it has been completed over two months ahead of schedule.

“Local people have been crying out for the bypass for some time now. As soon as we had final approval from the Department for Transport, we wasted no time in getting started.”

Villagers had to share Pegswood with around 9,000 vehicles a day, including about 1,000 lorries.

The bypass starts at the top of Whorral Bank outside Morpeth south of its junction with the B1337, and run south of Pegswood to rejoin the A197 near Park Wood.

The bypass is part of the proposed A1 to South-East Northumberland Link Road project to connect the A1 near Morpeth to Ashington.

 It is estimated that the bypass will reduce traffic in Pegswood down to around 1,000-2,000 cars a day. Once the bypass is completed environmental works will be carried out in the village.

cycle pathThe bypass involved:

  • 369 people to build it.
  • 12,000 tonnes of tarmac.
  • 1/2 million tonnes of earth being moved around the site.
  • 2000 stone piles installed in the ground underneath the embankments
  • 14km of drainage laid
  • 10km of fencing erected.

The final stage involves environmental restoration works, with 5km of mixed hedging to be planted and 80,000sq m of woodland to be created, with 45,000 trees and shrubs.

During the building of the bypass, youngsters at Pegswood First School have been kept in touch with highways about the building of the new road next to their village and the dangers of going near the site.

 

How will our activities affect you?

On this page you will find a regularly updated overview of our activities and the impact, if any, on Pegswood Village and motorists using the A197.

An introduction to the Pegswood Bypass
Northumberland County Council (NCC) has been developing the Pegswood Bypass through various stages of design and planning approval for almost 10 years.
The project in total will represent a total capital expenditure of £9.4 million funded through the Department for Transport, Local Transport plan budget for which NCC successfully bid in October 2004.

When underway the bypass will be the largest single highways project in Northumberland. In order to manage such schemes the N3 partnership was formed. N3 is an alliance of NCC Community and Environmental Services Directorate, Carillion Construction, and Faber Maunsell Consulting Engineers. The aim of the N3 partnership is to challenge the conventional methods of scheme development. One such example is early contractor involvement with the design team which has allowed us to make early key decisions which in turn bring cost efficiencies. Partnering has a proven track record of success in Northumberland with the completion of recent schemes such as Lesbury Bridge and the major reconstruction of the Spine Road.
It will fall to the N3 partnership to successfully manage the bypass until completion in spring 2007 top

Programme
At this early stage the detailed programme for the scheme is still in development but broadly the programme is

9th January 2006
Carillion arrive onsite

23rd January 2006
The site compound will be established and preliminary works will begin.
Early tasks will include construction of the Whorral Bank Roundabout lasting 3 months. The construction of the roundabout is likely to be a major source of traffic disruption with signals in operation on occasions and the probable closure of the Whorral Bank crawler lane. Once the roundabout is established however it will function as works access for the site and traffic will be able to flow freely for the remainder of the scheme. A 40 mph speed limit will be in force on Whorral Bank for the duration of the contract.

April 2006
Traffic signals will be introduced on the C395 Bothal Road south of the Cemetery to allow haulage of material.
A large scale earthworks operation along the eastern route of the bypass will commence in April/May 2006 to supply material from the borrow pit for the construction of the east approach embankment for the new Climbing Tree Bridge over the East Coast Main Railway Line. The earthworks operation has been designed to avoid the need for the haulage of material through the village.

Work on the Climbing Tree Bridge is programmed to commence in April 2006 and last 7 months. Some operations will require possessions of the railway line and therefore will have to be carried out overnight. Details of these overnight works will be provided to those living locally nearer the time.

Completion Spring 2007

Programme and progress will be regularly updated in this section of the website for the life of the project. top

Gearing Up
You may have noticed that the site office at Whorral Bank west of Pegswood has been rapidly taking shape over the past 2 weeks. The cabins will be the main base of operations for the site team over the next 12 months or so.

There are two main construction tasks currently occupying the site engineers the first of which is the construction of the new roundabout on the A197 at Whorral Bank. Before work can begin on building the roundabout it will be necessary to protect the existing services in the road, such as the major telecoms and gas lines which supply Pegswood. In order to carry out this protection it will be necessary to use temporary traffic signals. These works are expected to continue for a few weeks.

The second task is the establishment of the west haul road which can now be seen from Whorral Bank extending south eastwards into the site. The overall bypass scheme is effectively split into two halves by the East Coast Main Railway Line and the new road requires the construction of earth embankments to cross it. The bypass has been designed in such a way that all of the earth required for the west embankment will come from the west half of the scheme and vice versa for the east. This has the twin benefits of not having to import large quantities of earth from elsewhere and avoiding the need to haul large quantities of earth from one side of the scheme to the other through the village. However, there is still a need to handle almost a 1/2 million cubic metres of earth and other materials around the site. To do this it is necessary to construct temporary haul roads capable of coping with laden vehicles weighing up to 30 tons. The haul roads will be constructed on the line of the proposed footway/cycleway. top

Safety Notice
Carillion Construction and the n3 partnership take the issue of safety on their sites very seriously. A road project on the scale of the Pegswood Bypass requires the regular use of very large vehicles and equipment. Although the team work constantly to reduce risk and ensure safety, the fact remains that construction sites are dangerous places. We would therefore request that, for their own safety, the general public keep out of the site. If groups or individuals have any queries or questions the staff at the site offices will be happy to answer them. top

March Works Added 3rd March 2006
The tasks occupying the site team at the moment are the construction of the west drainage outfall (Chapel Wood outfall) and the piling platforms / drainage blankets for the two approach embankments leading to the climbing tree railway bridge.

As with most aspects of the scheme the East Coast Main Railway line neatly divides the drainage network of the new bypass into two independent halves. The western drainage system will collect all of the storm run off from the high point at the Climbing Tree Railway Bridge to Whorral Bank Roundabout and pipe it to a new outfall near Chapel Wood.
The system will include conventional road drains, silt traps and a petrol and oil interceptor which will remove the majority of the everyday waterborne sediments generated by traffic on the bypass. However, by locating the outfall in a natural gulley the flow will be allowed to run over an existing grassed area, allowing maximum opportunity to capture more fine particles and dissolved substances before the runoff enters the River Wansbeck.
The creation of new outfalls into rivers is strictly controlled by the Environment Agency. With the grateful permission of the landowner/farmer, a submission was made to the Environment Agency providing full details of our proposals for their approval.

If you have been using the public footpath alongside the east coast mainline recently you may have noticed a large blanket of reject bricks extending along the line of the road. This area marks the location of the west approach embankment to Climbing Tree Railway Bridge.
One of the major factors to contend with when constructing earth embankments is settlement, both of the new embankment and in the existing ground beneath. In order to achieve a smooth, properly draining finished road profile, settlement must be carefully controlled. Due to the nature of the construction of the bridge, i.e. a solid concrete and steel structure, it will settle relatively little compared with the earth embankment.
Left to its own devices it is predicted that 90% of the settlement in the embankment (60mm) will occur over the four years after construction.
Given that completion of the scheme is programmed for early 2007 an engineered solution is required to accelerate the settlement process. It is proposed to install porous stone piles using the blanket as a firm surface to support the heavy piling equipment required. The piles and blanket will allow water to flow more easily from the existing ground, hastening settlement and providing support for the embankment.

In the interests of public safety, as works progress it will be necessary to close public footpath number 8 which runs alongside the railway track and leads into Pegswood at Stanton Drive. The footpath will be closed from Monday 13th March 2006 until at least January 2006. Footpath number 9 from Whorral Bank through to Whitefield will remain open. top

A Special Visit Added 3/4/2006
Mole M visits PegswoodA special visitor arrived last week to meet the pupils of Pegswood First School. Mole ‘M’ helped the children learn about the building of the new road next to their village and the dangers of going near the site while building work is going on.

The budding engineers received certificates enrolling them as members of the Mole ‘M’ club, recognising all the safety lessons they had learned.

Mole ‘M’ and N3 would like to thank all the Mole ‘M’ club members and staff at Pegswood First School for a great day and reminds everyone to stay safe. top

Miners Welfare Park Added 24/4/2006
As part of the bypass works we are undertaking some environmental improvements to the Bothal Road including modifications to the existing miner welfare car park and improvements to the playing field drainage.

A temporary fence has been erected for safety to exclude the public from our works. Once complete the boundaries and fence lines will be reinstated along the highway boundary.top

Earthworks (Added 22/5/2006)
Although the only visible signs of our current progress to passing traffic are the ongoing construction of the new roundabouts at Whorral Bank and Bothal Road, the prolonged dry spell has allowed works to advance at a hectic rate at the further into the site.

Earthworks contractor Owen Pugh is currently busy excavating approximately thirty-four thousand cubic metres of clay from the area of cutting to the west of the new bridge over the railway. The clay is being hauled and deposited to create the new west approach embankment to the bridge, and also to create the embankment for the west link road into Pegswood.

At the moment there are 5 dumper trucks hauling material from the excavation to the embankment 10 hours a day. Each dumper is capable of carrying approximately 12 cubic metres (25 tonnes) and each vehicle itself weighing approximately 25 tonnes.

At the site of the new embankments the clay material is built up in 200mm thick layers and rolled out to tightly compact it.top

Flaming June (Added 16/6/2006)
The recent dry weather has allowed the earthworks sub-contractor Owen Pugh to make good progress. The earthworks to the west of the new bridge over the East Coast Main Railway line are now nearing completion, with only shaping, trimming and topsoiling the embankments and cutting to complete.

Road construction on the west embankment next to the railway will now commence, starting with drains and kerbs.

Earthworks east of the new bridge over the railway are in progress. We are excavating clay from a ‘borrowpit’ at the east end where the bypass will rejoin the existing A197, then hauling clay in dump trucks to form the east embankment next to the railway. This requires dump trucks to cross over the existing C395 Bothal Road and in order to do this safely; temporary traffic signals have been installed.

At the bridge site, concrete piles to support the structure are complete. Construction of the abutments has started and reinforced earth platforms which are an important part of the system to support the bridge beams are underway. The two reinforced concrete pier foundations have been built on top of the piles. On the west pier foundation, columns were successfully installed overnight on the 10/11 June. The bridge beams and columns are fabricated from weathering steel which, over time, will develop a similar finish to the Angel of the North. For safety reasons Network Rail require some construction work to be carried out over a Saturday night/Sunday morning when the line is closed. A series of overnight works is planned for the summer, details of which can be found on the roadworks page.

Work on the Whorral Bank Roundabout is nearly completed. Final surfacing will start at the end of June. Landscaping works in the central island include mounds for aesthetic and operational traffic safety reasons. The area will be cultivated and trees and shrubs planted.

Carillion are part of the N3 Partnership building the bypass. Earlier this year they were taken over by Carillion. As a result Carillion logos and names will be replaced by Carillion; however site operations remain unaffected.top

Mad Dogs and the N3 Partnership (Added 03/8/2006)
The hot, dry spell has allowed excellent progress on the bypass through July. Far from suffering in the midday sun we have taken full advantage of this opportunity to advance all aspects of the construction.

The West
Whorral Bank Roundabout - The new roundabout is now substantially complete. The Whorral Bank overtaking lane was reopened on 17 July. At the same time the right hand turn from Morpeth into the Waste Recovery Centre was banned and traffic wishing to access the centre from Morpeth is now required to make the safer manoeuvre of going around the new roundabout.

Pegswood West Link - Earthworks, drainage and kerbs are substantially complete and the road will be surfaced in early August. Temporary traffic signals are required for about four weeks to enable the new road to be tied into the existing. We have planned for this to take place during the school holidays when traffic flows are considerably reduced.
It is expected that traffic will be diverted onto the new link about 7 August and the existing A197/B1337 Junction will be permanently closed.
The stretch of redundant A197 carriageway will be removed and the material recycled and used for footpath/cycleway construction elsewhere on the site. Where the carriageway has been removed it will be grass landscaped with the existing footpath/ cycle route maintained. This area will become part of the proposed extension to the Community Park.

Pegswood Bypass Main Line - Travelling east from Whorral Bank Roundabout we are currently installing highway drainage and kerbs with final surfacing to follow up to the start of the west approach embankment for the Climbing Tree Railway Bridge. The embankment is being currently being monitored for the anticipated settlement. Carriageway construction will start when settlement is judged to be substantially complete.

Climbing Tree Railway Bridge - Progress is on programme and is dependant upon carrying out particular activities overnight at weekends when the rail line is closed.
The bridge abutments and two piers are now complete. The steel girders which support the concrete bridge deck were lifted into position overnight on 29/30 July using a very large crane. The maximum lift was 32 tonne. The remaining beams will be placed overnight on 5/6 August. Concrete planks will then be placed between the beams followed by a reinforced concrete deck.

The East
Pegswood Bypass Main Line - The earthworks and road foundation are nearing completion with the east approach embankment to the rail bridge substantially complete. The road foundation material is recycled, originating from other highway and demolition schemes in Northumberland. Drainage works are in progress with kerbs to follow.

The Bypass ties into the existing A197 east of Pegswood Cemetery and preliminary tie- in works have started. Traffic signal control is required for about two weeks, planned to take place during the school holidays when traffic flows are considerably reduced.

All drainage from the new rail bridge eastwards outfalls into the Bothal Burn at the extreme east of the scheme. An underground interceptor tank has been installed to reduce the risk of pollutants entering the burn. The water then flows into an open channel which will further cleanse the run off with reeds and river planting. Completion of the outfall will ensure that when the rain finally arrives our progress won’t be impeded.

Borrowpit - The operation to extract clay for the works, from the borrowpit area at the far east of the bypass is now complete and restoration is well underway. The area will be re-graded over the next month and eventually returned to agricultural use. Our work will have provided a field with a greater usable area and improved working gradients.

Bothal Link Road C395 - Work is progressing on the Bothal Road village link improvement north of the new Pegswood Roundabout. As part of the Scheme we have started to construct a decorative wall along the eastern boundary of the Miners Welfare Park. Work has also started on extending and resurfacing the existing Welfare car park and an overflow reinforced grassed car park. We are also carrying out drainage improvements to the two football pitches as part of our works.isruption. The final works will be carried out later in the year.top

Autumn / Winter Progress Report (added 29/11/2006)

While it’s still too early to confirm an opening date for the bypass, good progress has been made such that the works are ahead of programme

West of the railway

All carriageway works at the Whorral Bank Roundabout are now complete and all that remains are minor finishes to the footpaths, ditches etc. The main task now in these areas is landscaping and hedgerow planting which commenced at the end of September. The large earth ‘sculpture’ in the central island will be grass seeded and trees with fiery red foliage, and/or fruits, will be planted in the bowl. Hedge planting will continue over the winter whilst grass will pause to resume in the spring 2007 growing season. The redundant section of the A197 has now been planed out and the materials re used in the new cycleway on the bypass. The area of the old carriageway has been back filled with soil ready for seeding in the spring. Additionally the area to the rear of the site offices will be graded and seeded and will become an extension of the Pegswood community park to the north.
Bypass - The west mainline is nearing completion with all the kerbs now in place and tarmac laid up to the final surface course, which will be laid later in the year once site traffic no longer requires access to the bridge area. The cycleway to the north of the carriageway is currently being constructed with the bituminous material won from the redundant A197 being recycled as the cycleway foundation. Top soiling of the verges and planting areas has largely been completed except for an area of proposed woodland the new bridge and the Portland Estate which will be seeded in the spring and tree planted in the winter of 2007/2008.
Climbing Tree Railway Bridge - All of the major concrete pours required for the bridge have now been completed, the biggest of which was the pouring of the bridge deck. Two teams of 16 worked outwards from the centre of the deck fed by two large concrete pumps. The teams made up from Carillion and Northumberland County Council staff worked tirelessly through the night to complete the pour during an overnight railway possession. Engineers have now turned their attention to backfilling the embankments behind the structure, completing the reinforced earth retaining walls and completing the road over the bridge.

East of the railway
Bypass -The earthworks for eastern approach embankment were completed later than the west and monitoring of settlement is ongoing. Engineers will soon be required to make the decision as to when construction of the road on the east embankment can be completed in view of this ongoing settlement. Further east on the mainline kerbing and tarmac works have all but been completed with only the final surface of the road yet to be laid.

Pegswood Roundabout/Bothal Road - The Pegswood roundabout and Bothal Road have been the main focus of activity on the site in recent times. Northumberland County Council granted the temporary closure of Bothal Road for a six week period posing engineers the daunting task of constructing a roundabout in just six weeks. Whilst the removal of traffic makes operations easier the site faced a tight programme to achieve the 23rd October reopening target. The roundabout has now been substantially completed with only the tie in into the village to be finalised. Works in this area are programmed to be completed by 4th December. Completion of the tie in will also see the end of our major traffic management and signals for the scheme with short term off peak traffic lights only being required to complete the bypass from then.
On Bothal Road, the boundary wall has been completed adjacent the miners welfare park. The wall compliments the existing cemetery wall opposite and, once the ornamental railings have been installed will provide an attractive entry into the village. Road construction adjacent the cemetery is now substantially complete.

In addition to our works the partnership, on behalf of Northumberland County Council, has also carried out repairs and resurfacing of approximately 400m of the Bothal Road south of the roundabout through Whitefield towards Bothal.
The east tie in -The link from the Pegswood roundabout east to the A197 has now been substantially completed. Also in this location the borrowpit from where the clay was won to create the eastern railway bridge embankment has now been restored back to agricultural land. A programme of aftercare is now in operation which will operate for the next 5 years under the supervision of DEFRA. This will include the installation of field drainage in the second year.

Recycling and Responsible Construction
Recycling is an important part of modern construction and Pegswood Bypass is no exception.

  • The two compounds are built on recycled road materials
  • Crushed waste material was used to construct the western half of the Whorral Bank Roundabout
  • The haul roads required to gain access the bridge site were constructed from recycled road material.
  • The drainage blankets beneath the embankments were constructed using broken reject bricks
  • Soft spots and poor ground conditions were strengthened using reject bricks at lower levels with recycled road material on top
  • In the Pegswood cut large pieces of sandstone were excavated. Along with kerbs and tarmac excavated from the Whorral Bank roundabout, the sandstone was crushed onsite and re used in the construction elsewhere onsite
  • Road planings from other Northumberland County Council highway schemes have been used extensively in the bypass construction.

The project as a whole will use approximately 30,000 cubic metres of recycled materials. The use of recycled materials brings an estimated monetary saving of £130,000 along with more obvious environmental benefits.

Meet the Ancestors
We recently had the pleasure of hosting a visit of the North East Institution of Civil Engineers seniors. The visit provided the site engineers with a welcome diversion from the daily business of building the bypass. The delegation of retired engineers was keen find out about the bypass, both its development and the construction and didn’t hold back with some searching questions for the site engineers. top