£54.5 million relief road in Northampton could be completed by March 2025, say developers building final phase

The final phase of a £54.5 million relief road could be complete by March 2025 – as the second phase nears completion.

Work started in March 2022 on phase two of the North West Relief Road (NWRR), which will run around the north-west corner of Northampton.

Once complete the project will link the A428 Harlestone Road to the A5199 Welford Road and will eventually join up with a planned Northern Orbital Road, running to the A43 near Moulton.

Planning consent was granted back in September 2020 despite opposition from local campaign groups after more than 30 years in the pipeline but only got the green light after West Northamptonshire Council (WNC) voted to take out a £20 million loan in December 2021 to cover more than one-third of the bill following a shortfall in funding.

West Northants Council (WNC) has been in charge of completing the second phase of the road, which crosses the railway line and connects to the developers' road to the A5199.

WNC has confirmed that the second phase is set to be completed this summer. The initial target date set by contractors Balfour Beatty was spring 2023.

Developers Persimmon Homes are now responsible for the completion of the third and final phase of the road, which will run alongside Harlestone Firs and on to York Way.

A spokeswoman for Persimmon Homes said: “We are currently going through the purchase of land that will enable these works to our portion of the North West Relief Road to occur, in partnership with Barratt David Wilson. It is our ambition to begin construction on this section of the road in summer 2024 and we have been working with WNC throughout this process. The estimated completion date with this in mind would be February / March 2025.”

On the housing development, she added: “We have received planning permission for the first phase of our homes at Dallington Grange and once our land purchase in partnership with Barratt David Wilson is complete, we will be able to begin construction of these properties.”