Plans are continuing to be developed for a £290 million carriageway upgrade scheme in Northumberland.

Highways England is planning to dual a 13-mile stretch of the A1 to create a dual carriageway on the entire stretch of the route between Newcastle and Ellingham.

Three options were presented to residents and local stakeholders during a six-week consultation last year; plans included widening the A1 between Morpeth and Felton, and 1 option to widen the A1 between Alnwick and Ellingham.

Out of 587 responses to the consultation, the majority (41%) preferred the 'green' option for the Morpeth to Felton section, while nearly half of respondents agreed with the 'orange' option for te Alnwick to Ellingham section (49%).

The green option between Morpeth and Felton includes building a new carriageway to the west of the existing road between Priest's Bridge and Burgham Park. Highways England said this will improve safety along the route and also have benefits during construction in terms of worker safety and efficiency. The existing A1 will act as a local road once the scheme has been completed.

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Elsewhere, the orange route between Alnwick and Ellingham involves upgrading the existing road to dual carriageway, widening either the east or west of the current road depending on the local features that need to be considered. This option also includes improvements at the South Charlton junction.

Both options have now been unveiled as the ones Highways England is taking forward in its preferred route announcement (PRA) for the improvements.

Further work to refine the ideas will now take place and a further consultation with more design details included will take place next year.

Highways England project manager Nanette Hoyle said: "We recognise the importance of this route and are delighted to announce the 2 options we are taking forward are the ones which the majority of people wanted in last year's consultation.

"Over the last few months we have worked hard to identify the best possible options by working through the feedback from the events, along with safety, economic and environmental analysis and we are excited to share our plans with local stakeholders, businesses and the community.

"Work now continues, adding detail to the design for each of the dualling options and on planning how we will deliver them in a way that keeps traffic moving."

Overall, work could starts on the multi-million pound scheme in 2019/2020.

(LM)