M55 to Heyhouses Link Road
Access between the motorway network and the Lytham St Annes area is currently via small local roads, which have become congested. This results in unreliable journey times, which act as a constraint on local economic growth, as well as making travel more difficult for everyone who lives and works in the area.
The M55 to Heyhouses Link Road will create a much better connection between Lytham St Annes and the M55 motorway, relieving congestion on smaller local roads and supporting the commercial viability of local housing and business development sites.
The road will also improve people's journeys to existing employment areas in Lytham and St Annes, with the improved link to the coast also supporting the Blackpool Airport Enterprise Zone and the area's vital leisure and tourism industry.
The need for the link road has been recognised in key local planning documents for a number of years, being included in Fylde Borough Council's Local Plan and proposed within the Fylde Coast Transport Masterplan produced by Lancashire County Council.
M55 to Heyhouses Link Road map (JPG 2.01 MB)
What this involves
A new dual carriageway will be created between the existing roundabout at Whitehills Road to the north with Heyhouses Lane near the Cypress Point development site to the south.
The existing Wild Lane which runs beside the northern section of the new road is already closed to traffic and will become a shared route for use by pedestrians, cyclists and horse riders, with connections into existing public rights of way.
On the southern section, there will be a new shared path for cyclists and pedestrians, providing a continuous sustainable transport corridor along the whole length of the new road.
Progress so far
The link road received planning permission in 2012 following a public inquiry, with initial enabling works to prepare for the construction of the road carried out in 2017.
Further preparation work began in January 2019 to relocate communications cabling which crossed the line of the new road. Work also took place in early 2021 to construct a concrete slab to protect a high pressure water main and relocate electricity network infrastructure.
Work on the road itself began in June 2021.The first phase involves around 18-months of earthworks to prepare the ground for the new road, being carried out by Duo Operations.
The road will then be constructed by the county council's in-house team, with an expected completion date of late 2023/early 2024.
The road is being funded thanks to contributions from or managed through the Department for Transport, Highways England, the Lancashire Enterprise Partnership (LEP), Lancashire County Council, Fylde Borough Council, Kensington Developments Ltd, and other developers.