WORK on a major new £27 million relief road connecting Farnham to the A3 via Bordon is back in the fast lane. Having encountered a hiccup or two, Hampshire County Council has said new contractor Skanska is now on site.

Their priority now is to finish the southern section of the new road linking Whitehill and Bordon with Farnham – from the A325 Firgrove Road roundabout to ‘junction two’ at the access of the new garrison housing development.

The recent delays came following the widely-publicised financial collapse of Carillion, which had been delivering the project, added to the complications caused by heavy snowfalls and ice over the last month.

The compulsory liquidation of the Wolverhampton-based firm left a question mark over the Whitehill and Bordon relief road works but, according to Hampshire County Council, progress is again being made on the scheme.

Ultimately, the relief road should - if it achieves its aim - take traffic away from the A325 and ease congestion in Whitehill and Bordon, as well as easing journeys for Farnham motorists heading towards the A3 and the south coast.

Work is due to be completed towards the end of this year, says the county council, at which point the entire relief road will be opened up to provide a free flowing alternative to the A325.

After more than 100 years as a ‘garrison town’, the Army left Bordon in December 2015, freeing up more than 100 hectares and presenting an opportunity to transform the town from “garrison town to green town” by 2030.

The resulting £1 billion, multi-partner, 15-year redevelopment programme promises some 3,350 new homes; 5,500 jobs and nearly 100,000sqm of new commercial, retail and leisure floor space.

It will however, result in Bordon’ s population increasing from 14,000 to 22,000 by 2030, and there are fears in Farnham that this could increase the pressure on the town’s already congested road network.

To mitigate this, Hampshire County Council has in partnership with its Surrey counterparts allocated funding for improvements to the Hickleys Corner crossroads and Coxbridge roundabout in Farnham, as well as the School Hill mini-roundabout in Wrecclesham. A possible Wrecclesham relief road is also expected to form part of Surrey County Council’s bid to the Government’s new Major Roads Network fund.