It was announced at Monday's Parish Council meeting that an opening ceremony is being organised for the eagerly awaited Alderley Edge and Nether Alderley bypass - which will hopefully coincide with the opening of the new road to traffic.
Tatton MP George Osborne will be attending the official opening on Friday November 19th, along with guests of Cheshire East and a number of local residents and businesses who have been involved with the development of the bypass.
Councillor Mary Maczkowiak commented "We should be instrumental in organising something to celebrate the opening, inviting all the people who have helped and done things over the years."
Frank Keegan informed the Parish Councillors "An all day celebration is planned. We expect the guest list to grow to about 150, a large part of which will come from Alderley Edge.
"It is intended that Cheshire East will lay on buses to take guests down to the new road and that the Parish Council will then lay on a lunch here for them."
Doug Mackie, Project Manager for Cheshire East, said "We are endeavouring to have the road open to traffic on Friday November 19th to coincide with the ceremony.
"Unfortunately we are not able to say for definite, as it depends on the weather but we are certainly doing everything we can to meet this date.
"We will probably have to come back and finish off some bits and pieces though, and we anticipate that the planting will continue right through the winter."
One thing that is for certain is that the bypass will be completed way ahead of schedule. The main construction works started in February 2009 with the official completion date set for June 2011.
The three mile route, which runs from the Harden Park roundabout and rejoins the existing A34 to the south of Nether Alderley village, will have cost £52 million, with the majority of the budget (£48.4m) funded by the Department of Transport.
Comments
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Just 2 years ago Brook Lane was a pleasant country road to stroll down. The building of a bypass to travel underneath should not have altered that fact too much. A huge amount of trees were removed in the first instance and now have been replaced with solid 8ft high fences blocking out all views to the countryside (but not the bypass itself). WHY????
I used to enjoy this walk but not anymore!!
The date for completing Welsh Row may now be as late as Christmas!
These would have enabled residents of Chelford and nearby villages to use the northern end of the bypass to avoid Alderley Edge in the morning and evening rush hours if travelling to/from Wilmslow and beyond. Having studied the layout of the roads and the new bridge at those points, I can see no reason why these could have not been incorporated quite easily and at not too much cost I would have thought. Any comments Cheshire East Council?
This could take alot of heavy traffic off Chelford Road ( but I am sure will only bottleneck at Monks Heath) and be good for the Chelford Road residents. This could take a long time as most sat-navs will take drivers the old route for quite some time to come.
Meanwhile I think there are plans for a weightlimit and new speed limits on Chelford Road once the by-pass opens. For me too the slip road would be a good idea but this could also be bad as it would attract more long-distance traffic onto Chelford Road, so lets hope the by-pass takes the traffic from the village + Chelford Road and the rush hour village traffic will be much easier.
Once open he will quickly recall the nightmare of rush hour maniac drivers using this country lane as a rat-run. Folk from Altrincham /Hale/Bowden end will still use it !
Now with the road sweetened and the wider road + all the shrub rows and trees gone the traffic speed will only increase at the Gatley Green Farm end. Remember the Lane is derestricted .
Do we always have to wait for the horrific accident before something is done ? Naturally no consultation has happened for the residents affected in this matter, possibly the engineers could pop round once the official opening "do "has finished .