A5036 Port of Liverpool access

Latest updates

• 08 July 2022

  Summer update 2022

  As businesses and their staff adopt new ways of working following the pandemic, more people work from home more often. However, although commuting habits seem to be changing, the volume of traffic on our network seems as high as ever.  

  At the time of our last update, National Highways was working to understand the impact of the pandemic on the scheme. Changes in trade patterns following Brexit, initiatives like the Freeport, local employment and commuting habits since the pandemic struck in early 2020, are also likely to have had a significant impact.   

  An important part of developing our scheme design is modelling how our proposals affect traffic on and around the A5036. We need to update our traffic modelling to take account of the impact of all these changes and will be working closely with Liverpool City Region partners to do that over the coming months. 

  ​This detailed and important work is likely to take approximately 12 months to complete.  We will not be in a position to publish an updated project timeline, including when we intend to formally consult the local community and the wider general public on our proposals, until we have progressed our traffic modelling work. 

  In the meantime, we are also reviewing changes to planning and environmental regulations. We remain committed to working with the local community to ensure their views are considered and our scheme supports the economic, environmental and social ambitions of the City Region and its residents. 

• 12 November 2021

  Autumn update 2021

  The scheme, like the rest of the country, has continued to feel the effects of Covid-19. Over the last few months, we've been working to understand the impact of the pandemic on the project schedule.

  We've been unable to carry out traffic surveys that will help us to understand the effect the scheme will have on the local area, and how it interacts with the existing road network.

  Our aim now is for this and other activities to resume in 2022. As well as traffic data, we need to collect more up to date information about animal and plant species living in Rimrose Valley. Knowing exactly what’s there now will help us to maintain and improve biodiversity in the  area. Similarly, our landscape architects will walk the route to see whether there is more we can do to minimise the visual impact of the new road, and enhance the quality of the land around it. We also want our environmental specialists to resume collecting data about air quality and noise.

  The delays unfortunately mean that we’ve had to defer public consultation on the scheme’s design again. We are disappointed about this, as we know that residents living close to the existing route will be. We will however post an updated schedule for the scheme’s development and the work outlined above as soon as we possibly can.

   

• 26 April 2021

  Spring 2021 Surveys

  As the country slowly makes its way out of lockdown we are, in line with Covid-19 guidance, working to restart the environmental surveys interrupted by the pandemic.

  Ecologists working for our delivery partner, Kier Highways, on our behalf will be out and about over the coming weeks and months, carrying out species surveys in and around Rimrose Valley. The first of these are surveys to detect the presence of great crested newts and to gain an understanding of the size and spread of the populations. Other surveys will look for bats, badgers, voles, otters, invertebrates, reptiles and vegetation.

  The information from the surveys will build on and update data we gathered previously in the area, and will provide us with a better understanding of the ecology of Rimrose Valley.

  For the most part, these surveys are what we call ‘non-intrusive,’ with one or two surveyors walking over the valley, taking observations. For some of the surveys, they will need to leave small pieces of equipment in place for periods of time, such as bottle traps in bodies of water, reptile mats (which look a lot like pieces of roofing felt) and bat detectors. For the most part, you probably won’t notice them. If you do, please leave them where they are, as disturbing them will affect the accuracy of the results.

  As reported in previous updates, regular checks on groundwater levels are ongoing. We also hope to be able to restart air quality and noise surveys disrupted by the pandemic in the next few weeks. We will provide further updates as and when we are ready to begin those.

• 17 February 2021

  Ground investigation surveys update

  Our surveyors are currently carrying out regular checks of the boreholes that were installed in Rimrose Valley as part of the ground investigation work at the beginning of last year.

  Surveyors will make monthly checks on groundwater levels until summer this year. The information collected is helping us to develop a detailed understanding of the ground conditions in the valley.

  Impact of COVID-19 - September 2020

  Due to the impact of COVID-19, we have faced some delays on activities which we need to carry out to develop the project, including analysing the results of the ground investigation surveys. We’ve also postponed a number of environmental surveys as some of these could not be carried out safely while following social distancing, or because the results would not provide an accurate reflection of normal conditions.   

  We are working to understand the overall impact of the virus on the project schedule, and to develop plans on how we can continue to complete the required activities. It is important that we have accurate data available so we can design the road as effectively as possible.

  It is uncertain how much longer the pandemic will continue to disrupt progress, but it is clear that we’ll be unable to hold our next consultation this year. We understand this will be disappointing to everybody who wants to formally have their say on the proposals, and we wanted to thank you for your patience.

  We are continuing to develop the scheme, and we’ll update stakeholders and share our proposals for the design of the road, along with the findings of the surveys, as soon as we can.

  We hope that things will become clearer soon, and we’ll provide more updates on this web page.