March 16, 1966

AFTER years of Whitehall hold-ups, Bury’s long-awaited town centre by-pass road from Bury Bridge to Moorgate should be under construction soon.

The £670,000 dual carriageway scheme, designed to drain traffic from choked-up town centre routes, has now been given the green light by the Ministry of Transport.

Work on it is expected to start within one next 12 months.

The by-pass is one of three major road projects for the town costing more than one and a half million pounds, which are included in a new road-rolling programme announced last weekend by the Ministry.

Also given the go-ahead is the first phase of the Rochdale Road to Market Street relief road which will form one of the key features of the town centre redevelopment scheme.

Both projects are programmed for 1966-67.

Listed for 1968-69 is the £705,000 south west section of the ring road linking Bury Bridge with Manchester Road.

Bury’s borough engineer, Mr Rigby said: “This is good news for the town. There are all schemes which have been prepared over the years to deal with the town’s growing traffic problem.

“It now means the Ministry has agreed the schemes should be carried out and have given dates for them.”

Referring to the Bolton Street to Moorgate by-pass Mr Rigby said: “We have made a draft compulsory purchase order, and we hope to start physical work on the scheme such as clearance and construction of bridges within the next 12 months.”

An August starting date had been preliminary given for the town centre road which will cut through part of the Mosses.

“We still expect to start in August,” added Mr Rigby, who described the road as ‘vital’ to the town centre development scheme.

The first phase will stretch from Princess Street to Market Street and dovetail into plans for building the new market and market hall.

It will also be a dual carriageway road with subways for pedestrians.

The south west section of the inner ring road, programmed for 1968-69 is a continuation of the northern section of the road which forms the Bury Bridge to Walmersley Road bypass.

An aerial survey of the area through which the road will pass is being planned.