Councillor confident on Lincoln Eastern Bypass finish date

Lincolnshire County Council said the new bypass will reduce congestion around the city

Work on Lincoln's Eastern Bypass will be completed in 2020, a councillor in charge of highways has said.

Richard Davies said he was "very comfortable" with the project timeline despite it being delayed and over budget by £21m.

The bypass - which will link the A158 with the A15 - was due to be completed by December 2019.

But the £99m project was delayed due to the collapse of of Carillion in January.

Carillion, the UK's second biggest construction firm, collapsed with £1.5bn of debt, including a £587m pension shortfall.

Lincolnshire County Council has now appointed Galliford Try to complete the work, which is expected to be completed five months later than scheduled, according to the Local Democracy Reporting Service.

"Now that we've got the contractor on site and the initial round of preparatory work has been done, we are very comfortable that it is a reasonable timeline," Mr Davies said.

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He said the extra cost of the project, which brings it in around the £120m mark, would come from funding from the Department for Transport and the taxpayer.

The project has been blighted by delays, which previously saw protests from villagers in Cherry Willingham, Reepham and Fiskerton.

Most of the objections centred on concerns that the five-mile single carriageway would block Hawthorne Road and residents would no longer be able to use it to travel into the city.

The council's previous plans were rejected by the government in 2014 because of safety concerns over a bridge, which was redesigned.