A NEW photo has been released showing how close a major county road scheme is to being completed.

Worcestershire County Council's highways department confirmed that after years of work, Powick Roundabout is set to re-open fully at some time this summer.

In a tweet, they said: "Latest aerial view of Powick Roundabout showing slip lane to Powick (yet to be opened) bottom left and Hams Way footbridge in the background

"The Southern Link Road scheme is due to fully open later this summer, we'll be announcing details soon."

The A4440 Worcester Southern Link Road is now on phase 4 of improvements from The Ketch to Powick.

Phase 4 is the final phase of the scheme to fully dual the A4440 Southern Link Road from Junction 7 of the M5 to the Powick Roundabout.

The final phase of work began in March 2019 and will see the stretch of road between the Ketch and Powick roundabouts (Temeside Way) fully dualled and includes:

  • Construction of a new 1.9km road to the south of the current carriageway
  • Building of an additional bridge and viaduct next to the current Carrington Bridge and Powick Common Viaduct
  • Construction of a new cycle/footbridge over Hams Way, to the west of Powick Roundabout
  • A new, wider cycle and footpath to the North of the current road
  • Introduction of a new fully lit underpass to enable crossing near the Ketch roundabout 
  • Capacity improvements to both the Powick and Ketch roundabouts

The Department for Transport approved £55 million of funding for the completion of the works at the start of March 2019.

Further funding for the scheme has come from developer contributions.