Darlington Borough Council has successfully secured £3.3m of funding from the Department for Transport (DfT) to provide highways improvements that will support Darlington’s growing economy.
The funding from DfT’s National Productivity Investment Fund (NPIF) will be used on some of Darlington’s busiest routes to improve access to the town centre and sites around Central Park, Morton Palms and the Eastern Transport Corridor.
The improvements planned include:
- McMullen Road/Yarm Road roundabout – extra lanes will be added to the roundabout to increase capacity and open up access to the proposed Ingenium Parc industrial hub.
- Lingfield Way – the junction with Yarm Road will be signalised to ease access for traffic to and from Yarm Road Industrial Estate and support bus routes in the area. A new cycle route will be added to Lingfield Way.
- Haughton Road through about – the junction will be changed to improve capacity to support the growth at Central Park, Lingfield and other parts of the town. This will include additional lanes, changes to pedestrian facilities and the way the junction works; moving towards a more conventional roundabout layout.
The project will link to planned investment announced by Highways England to reduce congestion at the A66 Morton Palms roundabout and complement works already underway along the A68, which will see improvements for Westpark, Faverdale and Cockerton.
This package of junction works follows comprehensive reviews of the traffic network to identify congestion hotspots and pinch points across the town that require improvements to support Darlington’s expanding economy.
A council spokeswoman said: “The funding secured by our highways team is great news for Darlington and helps to maintain the momentum that we have built up in terms of economic growth.
“As Darlington continues to thrive economically it will need changes to its infrastructure to support the new jobs and housing.
“The schemes supported by the NPIF will improve traffic flow on the local highway network and unlock key sites for development, which can be used to create greater job opportunities for residents.”