South Yorkshire Mayor Oliver Coppard investigating private sector proposal for tunnel under Woodhead Pass

A maverick team called Future Works believes it can be done for £2bn – they’re even including a railway line to go with it.

Michael Dnes was part of the Department for Transport team that failed to deliver the original scheme.

He sees this project as unfinished business and co-founded the Future Works team full of industry experts to execute it.

Future Works’ idea would be a 14-mile tunnel built beneath the Peak District hills – which could cut journey times between Manchester and Sheffield by 30 minutes and take traffic away from the National Park.

Mr Coppard told The Yorkshire Post: “I think a tunnel has to be part of the conversation.”

Speaking about the Future Works project, he said: “We’ve heard recently about the potential cheaper option that has been forward by somebody who knows what they are talking about.

“That is a really interesting solution and I am investigating that as we speak.

“We are having conversations about how we engage that team and talk about what a private sector solution might look like.

“We know there are limited ways to improve that connectivity, but it has to be improved.”

The dual carriageway plan is inspired by engineers who’ve done similar work in Norway.

The Norwegians built the world’s longest road tunnel, the 15-mile long Lærdal in Norway, for around £130m.

The Woodhead railway line between the major northern cities would also be restored under the plans.

The fast line was closed to the public in the 1970s and then entirely in 1981 when the coal lines dropped.

The idea would see one of the current Woodhead tunnels, which currently transport electricity lines for the national grid, for the new road and railway.

Rather than using the standard British approach of a tunnel-boring machine, Future Works has looked into the drill-and-blast method applied to tunnels in Norway.

This system replaces giant machinery with more traditional mining techniques, the natural strength of the rock and small expert crews.

Although this would not work in many areas of the UK, the expert teams believe this ‘drill-and-blast’ method could work in this area due to the geology of the Pennines.

This is because the tunnels built in Norway go through mountains with similar rocks.

Future Works believes the project could be funded by either big pension funds or the local authorities, and paid back over time through tolls on the tunnel.

Mr Dnes explained that tolls could actually work out cheaper than paying for fuel costs to go around an alternative route, particularly if the vehicle is larger, such as a HGV.

A spokesperson for Future Works said previously: “High demand for the route means that the project could pay for itself, without the need for Westminster funding.

“Scandinavian tunnels are often owned by local councils, who recover the costs through tolls.

“Equally, northern pension funds have hundreds of billions in investment capital that could be mobilised to build the project.

“Many options exist – public, private and partnership. Future Works was set up by infrastructure experts Michael Dnes and Alex Griffiths, with a combined expertise in more than £100bn of infrastructure projects.

“They aim to create a shovel-ready scheme, and to bring this through the planning system faster than the 10+ year processes that have become the norm in UK planning.

“Work could begin before the end of the decade, with the road and railway open in the mid-2030s.”