Wentbridge Viaduct and Wentedge Road Bridge: A1 structure renovations in West Yorkshire will be completed in 2025

National Highways had planned to finish waterproofing and restructuring at Wentbridge Viaduct in summer 2025, before returning in 2026 to replace the central leg, or ‘pier’, at the nearby Wentedge Road Bridge.

National Highways project manager, John Stebbing, said: “To minimise longer-term disruption, we’ll have the repairs to both Wentbridge Viaduct and Wentedge Road Bridge complete by the end of August 2025.

“Rather than postpone the repairs to Wentedge Road Bridge for another two years, we have worked within our supply chain partners to devise a new programme for the scheme and have it all completed sooner.”

The completion date for the A1 Wentbridge Viaduct has been postponed until spring 2025 to allow National Highways to address unforeseen issues faced during the work. The work at Wentedge Road Bridge is then due to begin in January.

Mr Stebbing said: “By using the same traffic management for both Wentbridge Viaduct and Wentedge Road Bridge, we will reduce the overall amount of time lost.

“This will be much more efficient than removing all the traffic management from the A1, only to then return to set it all back up in 2026.”

Currently, the A1 between Barnsdale Bar and Ferrybridge is in contraflow while work takes place on the northbound carriageway.

To help mitigate the impact of the extended work on the viaduct, National Highways will lift the contraflow between November this year and January 2025. The A1 will then be restored to two lanes in both directions.

Mr Stebbing said: “We fully recognise the impact the Wentbridge Viaduct scheme has already had on drivers and regional communities and wanted to try and reduce congestion and inconvenience over the festive period.

“We will then come back in early January 2025 to reinstate the traffic management and begin demolishing the Wentedge Road Bridge pier.”

The repairs began on Wentbridge Viaduct in February 2023; the waterproofing membrane is being renewed and a post-tensioned special inspection of the entire structure is being carried out to protect it for the future. The waterproofing under the road surface layer helps to protect the structure from corrosion.

Additional problems including reinforced concrete repairs and safety barrier foundation are being tackled by the work, and road markings and studs are being replaced.

Once the layers of surfacing and waterproofing had been removed, engineers were able to carry out inspections of the viaduct.

Mr Stebbing said: “The scheme is being carried out in phases. As we have begun each phase, we unfortunately found a new set of issues which could not have been anticipated before we began.

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“This is why we’ve had to revise the schedule to accommodate the additional works required.

“We found we needed to repair sections of reinforced concrete, as well as manhole cover plates, the maintenance walkway anchor points under the bridge and safety barrier foundations.

“One of the challenges of only being able to inspect once you’re on site is that it takes time to design, check and approve the engineering solutions to rectify the issues, causing delays to the overall project.

“By extending the Wentbridge Viaduct scheme until spring 2025, we can ensure the structure is fully refurbished and all the necessary repairs complete, reducing the need for longer-term closures.”

National Highways has carried out enabling work to move the traffic away from the Wentedge Road Bridge central pier. This will allow the main pier works to be undertaken while keeping a lane of traffic running in both directions.

Since the scheme started, clear diversion signage has encouraged drivers to use motorway routes to avoid congestion on the A1, such as the M1, M18 and M62.

However, there has been an increase in the number of drivers using village routes. Speeding drivers and unsuitable vehicles such as HGVs have added to the issues.

Mr Stebbing said: “There are multiple signs in these areas informing drivers that there are no through routes and detailing weight restrictions.

“We urge drivers to remain on the main routes. Not only does using the village routes cause unnecessary disruption, but it's also not even the quickest way out of the congestion. It’s safer and faster to remain on the A1 or use the motorways.

“We’re working with police and local authorities, who are enforcing weight restrictions and checking speeds of traffic on the local network.

“Finally, we would like to say a huge thank you to everyone for their patience while this scheme has been carried out.

“We know this has been a long and challenging project and want to reassure everyone we are doing all we can to have this scheme completed as soon as possible.”

After previous public engagement events held in Darrington, a further event is planned towards the end of the year. This will give residents and drivers the opportunity to feed back to the project team and review the upcoming Wentedge pier works and final stage of Wentbridge waterproofing works.