Further details have been confirmed to resolve an issue which threatened to hold up a major road project for west Norfolk.
West Winch Housing Access Road will cut congestion on the A10 and make improvements to the A47 south of King’s Lynn, take heavy traffic out of the village of West Winch and enable up to 4,000 new homes to be built.
Norfolk County Council have been aware for several years that before construction on the new road can begin it would be likely that two high-pressure gas mains would need to be diverted by National Gas Transmission. This was accounted for in the project budget and timetable, however National Gas Transmission’s latest estimate for this work, provided last autumn, had risen to £24.5m, which had more than doubled since the figures provided in 2024.
The issue was reported to the County Council’s cabinet last December and a further report that provides an update and a way forward is due to be considered by cabinet members at a meeting on Monday 2 March.
Cllr Graham Plant, Cabinet Member for Highways, Infrastructure and Transport at Norfolk County Council, said: “Earlier this month we had confirmation from National Gas Transmission that the £24.5m they quoted to us in autumn is now considered to be the upper limit for the cost of this work. We will continue to work with them to reduce the final costs but, in the meantime, we have enough certainty now to finalise an agreement with our partner Homes England for them to provide additional funding to cover the majority of this cost increase.
“It was vital to get this issue resolved as quickly as possible to avoid potentially lengthy and costly delays. Now that we’ve got this outcome, and with planning approval secured late last year, we’re in a good position to move this important infrastructure project for west Norfolk forward.”
Subject to the recommendations in the report being approved by cabinet on 2 March, work to divert the two gas mains is currently anticipated to start during the spring and is programmed to be completed ahead of construction of the new road beginning next year.
