New £100m road 'set to be completed next year'

The Southern Link Road will connect the A1 to the A46 near Newark

A new road connecting a housing development with Newark is set to be completed next year.

Work on the Southern Link Road, which will connect the A1 to the A46, began in 2023 and was scheduled to have been completed in the first half of this year.

Designed to serve new houses and businesses, the project is costing an estimated £100m.

Its developers said much of the work "is in place" and has already made a "demonstrable impact" on local traffic.

Mark Redding said the road will bring wide benefits

The scheme is building about three miles (4.8km) of road, which covers 700 acres of land and involves moving 1.5 million tonnes of earth, and will serve the Middlebeck housing development that has already seen 500 homes built.

A new roundabout off the A1 has already been built, while a section covering Middlebeck was opened last autumn, and another area between Bowbridge Lane to Hawton Road was opened recently.

A final section will see a new roundabout on the A46 that will connect the new road and go around the south of the town, and is set to open in September next year.

Mark Redding, communications and partnerships manager for Urban and Civic, said the project "is something that can benefit the whole town of Newark".

"It should help with the connectivity of the south of Newark, it will ease congestion - which I know has been a problem, particularly in the centre - and it will make it easier for people to live and work here," he said.

"I think a lot of people are looking forward to it opening and that final link being in place."