New bids submitted to Highways Maintenance Fund

West Yorkshire Combined Authority (WYCA) has submitted £56m of Highway Maintenance funding bids for six projects to the Department for Transport's (DfT) £275m Local Highway Maintenance Challenge Fund.

Working in partnership with the five West Yorkshire district councils, WYCA submitted applications for projects in Bradford, Calderdale, Castleford, Huddersfield and Leeds. If successful the six bids would generate over £675m of economic benefit across West Yorkshire.

The Local Highway Maintenance Challenge Fund covers the period 2015 to 2018 and enables English Combined Authorities and Highway Authorities to bid for major maintenance projects that are otherwise difficult to fund through the DFT's normal "needs-based" allocations.

Bradford Street Lighting is a programme to replace street lighting columns identified as being beyond their design life of 25 years on target routes. This will provide improved lighting to modern British and European standards with energy- efficient equipment. Over 20 years, including a reduction in required maintenance, energy and CO2 savings and potential crime reduction, the benefits of this £6.3m scheme would be £6.7m.
Bradford Street Lighting Bid (pdf, opens new window)

Calderdale Street Lighting will replace life-expired street lighting equipment with modern equipment using the latest street lighting technology and materials. It will provide improvements both in lighting quality and energy efficiency of street lighting contributing to a safe and secure night time environment. Over 20 years, including a reduction in required maintenance, energy use, potential crime and accident reduction, the benefits of this £10m scheme would be £45.2m.
Calderdale Street Lighting Bid (pdf, opens new window)

In Kirklees, the Revitalising Huddersfield Town Centre project will strengthen the town by providing significant improvements to carriageways, footways, street lighting, traffic signals, drainage pedestrian crossings and cycle links. It will also stimulate new opportunities to achieve strong economic and employment growth and improve overall quality of life. Economic benefits resulting from improvements to commuters resulting from this £134m scheme would total over £528m.
Revitalising Huddersfield Town Centre Bid (pdf, opens new window)

The Bradford and Kirklees Retaining Structures project will improve the reliability of retaining wall structures on major traffic routes. Economic benefits from improvements to commuters and maintenance savings resulting from this £5.2m scheme would total over £25m.
Bradford and Kirklees Retaining Structures Bid (pdf, opens new window)

Leeds City Centre Structures is a project to carry out maintenance on or replacement of a number of pedestrian footbridges around the city to maintain access between strategic city centre regeneration areas and nearby communities. Economic benefits from more efficient use of the road network and a reduction in accidents resulting from this £10.3m scheme would total over £13.9m.
Leeds City Centre Structures Bid (pdf, opens new window)

Castleford Growth Area is a key project to deliver 3,900 new jobs and over 4,500 new homes as well as improving air quality and reducing congestion and the long-term cost of highway maintenance. This Challenge Fund bid would improve the underlying poor condition of the area's highway network. Economic benefits from more efficient use of the road network, improved journeys and a reduction in accidents resulting from this £6.6m scheme would total over £56.5m.
Castleford Growth Area Bid (pdf, opens new window)

Results of the bidding for the Local Highway Maintenance Challenge Fund are expected to be announced by the DfT over the next two months.