A new £27m link road in Lancashire has opened two months late after rain delayed construction work.
The M55 to Heyhouses Link Road on the Fylde coast opened on Friday (28 June), completing the existing Lytham St Annes Way by linking the Whitehills Roundabout near the M55 at its northern point, to Heyhouses Lane near Cypress Point at its southern point.
Lancashire County Council said the £27m road has been built to support the commercial viability of housing and business development sites and existing employment areas, with the improved link to the coast being ‘vital’ to the Blackpool Airport Enterprise Zone and the Fylde coast's leisure and tourism industry.
Construction began in June 2021 and the road was due to open in April but the council said in March that this had been put back by two months.
It said prolonged wet weather last year affected several sections of the road corridor, causing delays to the first phase of the scheme to carry out earthworks and construct drainage.
This had a knock-on impact on the project, with the site being handed over later than planned to the council's highways team for construction of the upper layers of the road.
The council's director of highways and transport, Phil Durnell, said: ‘Reaching this point is the culmination of many years of hard work by the county council and our partners to make the case for its benefits, bring together substantial funding from a number of sources, and engineer and construct the road to the necessary standard in what is a challenging location.
‘We're very pleased with the result. As well as the vehicle carriageway, there is a shared-use bridleway running alongside it, along with a number of controlled Pegasus crossings suitable for use by equestrians, cyclists and pedestrians.’
