Funding secured for major motorway improvements

Hampshire County Council and Fareham Borough Council have welcomed news of the award of £41.25 million of Housing Investment Grant by Homes England towards the upgrade of Junction 10 of the M27.

The upgrade will involve a new motorway underpass and three new slip roads to facilitate an ‘all moves’ arrangement to enable the development of Welborne Garden Village in North Fareham.

The completion of the Funding Agreement with Homes England is a significant milestone for the County Council who have been working hard with Homes England to get to this point.

The Government funding will make a substantial contribution to the cost of the scheme with the remaining £50 million being provided by the Welborne project.

Subject to all the necessary funding being in place, the County Council’s Cabinet has agreed that the County Council will take on the role of delivery body for the Junction 10 project.

A recent agreement with National Highways (formerly Highways England) has also been secured so that the County Council can deliver this highly complex engineering project on the Strategic Road Network once design work has been completed and all remaining approvals are in place.

The works at Junction 10 will be largely undertaken without directly impacting motorway traffic and will follow the completion of National Highways’ Smart Motorway works and also the County Council’s improvement scheme at Junction 9 of the M27.

An Invitation to Tender for the completion of the design and construction for the new Junction 10 has now been issued by the County Council.

The Welborne development is said to vital for the area and will make a significant contribution to the local economy, providing much needed homes, commercial floorspace and jobs.

To this end, the County Council is working in partnership with Fareham Borough Council and the Welborne Garden Village Master Developer – Buckland Development Ltd.

Councillor Rob Humby, the County Council’s Deputy Leader and Executive Lead Member for Economy, Transport and Environment, said: “We have always supported the development of a new Garden Village at Welborne and always advocated the importance of putting in place the necessary infrastructure and connectivity to leverage the full benefits for the local economy and communities.

"It’s great news that the remainder of the anticipated funding has been secured towards one of the biggest infrastructure investment schemes the County Council has ever progressed.

"As Highway Authority for the local road network, our transport planners and engineers are very experienced at successfully managing the development and delivery of large transport projects on our own network.

"However, the construction of a motorway underpass on National Highways network, is technically complicated and requires expert and specialist engineering teams. Whilst we do not underestimate the magnitude of the task, we are proud to be leading this important milestone project.”

Sophie White, Director of Infrastructure Grants at Homes England, said: “We are committed to working with ambitious local authority partners seeking to meet their local housing needs through delivery of key infrastructure.

"Our multi-million pound funding will provide strategic transport infrastructure for the new Garden Village at Welborne, unlocking 6,000 high quality homes and jobs in the area.”

Cllr Seán Woodward, Executive Leader of Fareham Borough Council said: ‘This a real landmark day for Welborne. Over the years I have been widely quoted as saying not a brick will be laid of Welborne until all of the necessary infrastructure is identified and funding sources confirmed.

"Funding is now in place for the new junction of the M27 so I am delighted the project can now move forward thanks to the efforts of all partners involved, and in particular the huge support we have received from Government in providing the funding that will make it happen.

"We can all now focus on the future with certainty that a very special new community will unfold in the coming years that will provide community benefits that will make Fareham an even better place to live, work and bring up a family."

John Beresford, Managing Director, Buckland Development Ltd said “Homes England’s assistance by forward funding the junction work is a huge recognition of Welborne meeting the Governments drive to building places that meet their Build Better, Build Beautiful initiative.

"The vision and delivery strategy we have for Welborne has long been aimed at making it one of the best places to live and work – we are really pleased that our vision and their policy objective have come together in this way.

"The forward funding is a major step to unlock the delivery so that we can start delivering homes and jobs to the region”

It is currently anticipated, that assuming all outstanding approvals following the completion of the junction design by the contractor can be completed to programme that construction of the new junction would begin in 2023.

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