Local businesses reveal impact of long-running A1 roadworks at Wentbridge
It comes as National Highways now says the work will continue through until late summer 2025
With another year to go until the long-running work on the A1 at Wentbridge is due to end, local businesses are telling us about the impact it's having on them.
The work to waterproof and resurface Wentbridge Viaduct started in February 2023 and was due to finish in winter that year. That then got pushed back to April of this year and then to the end of summer, because of what National Highways described as ‘unprecedented’ complications which were discovered once they started work.
The roadworks were due to lift around now and then return in summer 2026 for work on Wentedge Road Bridge to be carried out. But in the latest update, National Highways says they will instead do all the repairs at the same time whilst the diversions are still in place, meaning both projects should be fully complete by late summer 2025.
Since the roadworks have been in place, people living in surrounding villages such as Wentbridge, Thorpe Audlin and Darrington told us they’re dealing with issues like traffic, potholes and litter as a result of drivers using local roads as 'rat runs'.
Some residents are now writing to local MPs calling for a review into how the project has taken so long, and businesses tell us it’s having an impact on trade.
'It's impacted sales drastically'
“We’re getting a lot of opportunists coming through, burglaries have gone up, vehicle thefts…and it’s all because of that bridge,” says Colin Naylor, owner of Darrington Village Store.
“Traffic’s increased tenfold. It’s dangerous, they drive through at excess speed constantly. But nobody’s bothered. Until somebody gets killed, I think that’s when somebody will do something. But we even had an accident outside of our shop a couple of weeks ago.
“Sometimes we can’t even get of our own drive. There’s nowhere for people to park to come to the shop so it’s impacted sales drastically.
“It’s just crazy, it would’ve been quicker to put a new bridge in. I mean they tell us it’s listed…does anybody really care if it’s listed?”
'All day and all night, there's no peace'
Phillipa is deputy manager at the Blue Bell Inn in Wentbridge which is on the main ‘cut-through’ route being used by vehicles to avoid the roadworks – she told us about the impact on them:
“Most of our customers are late, it pushes us back, we get complaints then because people are not sat down on time. It has been an absolute nightmare for us to be honest.
“You’ve got cars flying up and down this road, big lorries flying up and down at 60, 70 miles an hour. The traffic on Moor Lane, you’re queuing in it for half an hour.
“It was known to be really quiet, it was really quiet to come and sit in the beer garden and just have a nice afternoon. And you can’t now because of the noise. All day and all night, there’s just no peace.
“It just seems like every time it gets close to the date, we get a letter saying it’s going to be another 6 months, another year.
“I don’t drive so I used to get the bus to work which goes on the A1. Which was also a nightmare because some of the buses were cancelling or having to go round the long way which then means you’ve got buses coming down little dirt tracks that they’re not meant to go down.
“Thorp Audlin are suffering a lot with buses because they don’t get many and there’s a lot of old people in that village so they’re missing out on a lot.”
There is signage urging drivers to remain on the A1 or use the M18 and M1 rather than taking local routes, but residents point out that satnavs are directing people through the villages.
In its latest update, National Highways says: “We understand that this extended work will cause inconvenience, and we are committed to reducing disruption as much as possible. By integrating the Wentedge Road Bridge repairs into the current programme, we can avoid the need for further long-term closures in the future.
“Currently, a contraflow system is in place on the A1 between Barnsdale Bar and Ferrybridge. To ease travel during the busy festive season, we plan to lift the contraflow system from November 2024 until January 2025, restoring two lanes in both directions.
“We continue to work closely with local communities.”