Five vie for delayed £23m Wakefield road deal

Five firms are pricing a massively delayed West Yorkshire road scheme, which has almost doubled in price since it surfaced seven years ago.

Wakefield Metropolitan District Council's Hemsworth-A1 link road, now worth around £23m, has attracted Nuttall, Costain, Balfour Beatty, Alfred McAlpine and Norwest Holst.

The council expects to award the contract in October, with a start on site likely shortly afterwards and completion due within two years.

When the scheme was first mooted, construction costs were put at around £12m, rising to £17.5m two years ago.

The project was hit when the government failed to stump up funding and when landowners objected to compulsory purchase orders.

One source said: "The council has at last got funding approval from the government, but even now it's only conditional. Wakefield will have to go back to the Department for Transport with the full costs of the scheme to get full approval."

The project includes 8km of single carriageway, bridges and roundabouts.

It is understood that the council is poised to award Costain its £6m Glasshoughton-Coalfields link road, now that the government has approved the scheme.