The replacement of an ageing road bridge will move a step nearer with Leicestershire County Council revealing plans for a £18m bid to the Government’s Levelling Up fund.
The much-needed improvement on the A6006 at Zouch is seen as a way of bolstering a key, strategic route to the UK’s only inland Freeport around East Midlands Airport, the Ratcliffe-on-Soar power station redevelopment site and the East Midlands Intermodal Park near the Derbyshire Toyota plant.
Amid a backdrop of financial pressures, the council says bidding for funding to replace the bridge is its only feasible option.
Building a replacement bridge limits the impact on the road network and it’s the type of project which is at the very heart of levelling up.
It matches our ambition to ensure Leicestershire is a major player in encouraging growth and investment. The work on a new bridge ensures a strategic cross-country route remains open to some very key sites as well as helping to alleviate traffic congestion off the M1 and a number of A-roads
Person:County council leader Nick RushtonIf successful with the funding bid – an announcement is expected later in the year - the project at Zouch would see the new bridge built to the south of the existing bridge. Traffic would then be diverted on to the new bridge as demolition work starts on the old bridge.
Work could start in 2023.
The county council is also supporting a Levelling Up transport bid by Blaby District Council to fund improvements around junction 21 of the M1.
It’s also anticipated that a number of district councils – as well as the city council – will submit Levelling Up fund bids.