Over 30 miles of the A1 will be upgraded to motorway standard

It will cost �245m to upgrade to motorway standard the 33 miles from Darrington in West Yorkshire to Dishforth in North Yorkshire.

The work involves the construction of 15 miles of new motorway between Ferrybridge and Hook Moor and Wetherby and Walshford.

It is the first stage of a project to upgrade the A1 throughout the whole of the north of England - the largest road improvement scheme in Britain.

It is good news for Wetherby that the road will be built further away from the town Colin Burgon MP

The new road will be built and operated by Road Management Services (RMS).

RMS will be paid by a new system that partly relies on the company's success in minimising congestion and reducing road accidents.

Highways Agency project manager Alec Briggs said: "RMS will be paid on a sliding scale depending on the speed and volume of traffic using the road.

"This will act as an incentive for them to conduct essential activities, such as maintenance works, at off-peak times and to attend to incidents quickly."

Road junctions

The route for the new A1 was chosen after a series of public inquiries in the 1990s.

People living in some villages near Wetherby fear that changes to some of the road junctions will mean they will suffer extra traffic.

The present A1 junction with York Road at Wetherby will be closed and replaced with a new junction further north at Kirk Deighton.

Peter Locke from a local residents' action group, says this means there will be no direct access from the A1 to the Thorp Arch trading estate where 6,000 people work.

"Without the junction there is going to be huge congestion," he warns.

Low noise

But the Highways Agency says it will be working with Leeds City Council to try and ensure that traffic does not divert through local villages.

The Labour MP for Elmet, Colin Burgon, whose constituency includes part of the route of the new A1 thinks the road will be bring benefits to local people

"It is good news for Wetherby that the road will be built further away from the town as residents close to the current road have had trucks and cars thundering past their houses," he said.

"Consultation with people living in Boston Spa, Bramham and Clifford has already meant that RMS is planning to put down a special surface between Bramham and Wetherby to reduce noise."

A contract to upgrade the 24 miles of the A1 north of Dishforth is expected to be awarded on September.

Construction of this section is likely to begin in 2007 with completion in 2010.