VIP seal of approval for £4.9 million A550 safety scheme

A VIP visit has helped mark the completion of a £4.9 million National Highways project improving safety along sections of the A550 at Two Mills near Ellesmere Port in Cheshire.

Chester North and Neston MP Samantha Dixon visited the site on Friday 13th December 2024 to see for herself a raft of improvements that will improve safety along the route for pedestrians, cyclists, motorcyclists and drivers.

Sections of the four-mile route between the A494 at Shotwick and A41 near Hooton have benefited from new footways to improve public right of way, new roadside safety barriers and improved lighting which include the use of energy-saving, carbon-reducing LED bulbs.  Existing safety cameras in the area have been replaced with a dozen new average speed cameras to help enforce the 50mph speed limit and road signs along the route have also been renewed.

New vehicle activated signs have also been installed to warn drivers on the A550 when other road users are pulling out of Shotwick junction.

After being taken on a tour of the improvements along the A550 on Friday local MP Mrs Dixon said:

“It’s great to see these important safety improvements completed and to see such investment in important roads in the constituency that will make a real difference for local residents and all who travel through the Chester North and Neston constituency.

“Thank you to everyone involved in delivering these works and for the opportunity to visit to see them first-hand. This project will undoubtedly have a positive impact on our community.”

Mrs Dixon was accompanied by National Highways project manager Ian Spence who said:

“The A550 project aims to improve safety for all road users and contribute to the reduction number of people harmed on the region’s roads.  The scheme is delivering multiple objectives to improve safety for the public for both vehicles and pedestrian traffic alike with average speed camera enforcement of the existing speed restrictions along with redlight enforcement at Two Mills junction.

“In addition, we have reduced roadside hazards by removing trees with Ash Die back disease and replaced existing lighting columns with passive safe columns and installed new sections of footway.

“Road safety is National Highways’ number one priority with an ambition for no-one to be harmed while travelling or working on our roads.” 

Work on the improvements began in April and were largely completed at the end of November. Minor work to finish the project will be carried out in January.

More than 30,000 vehicles use the route daily. In the period from January 2015 to December 2019 there were 31 collisions between Hooton and Shotwick, eight of them serious – and a third of them at the junction with the A540. The tailored safety improvements aim to reduce the total number of collisions and complement a £1 million project completed in 2018 improving safety for pedestrians and cyclists travelling along the A540 through its junction with the A550 at Two Mills.

The project is the first to be completed in a targeted £9 million road safety programme with four other routes in Greater Manchester, Lancashire and Cumbria also benefitting from safety improvements.  

More information about the programme is available here:

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Pictured alongside the northbound A550 at the busy Two Mills junction with the A540 are (l-r) :

Councillor Simon Eardley  (Cheshire West and Chester Council Saughall and Mollington ward),  Karl Farrow (CWAC Highways Area team Leader), National Highways project manager Ian Spence, Chester North and Neston MP Samantha Dixon and Gary Knowles, National Highways' head of scheme delivery (operations North West).