A46 Newark Bypass

Latest updates

• 09 April 2025

  End of DCO Examination

  The examination phase of the Development Consent Order (DCO) ended on Tuesday 8 April 2025. 

  The Examining Authority (ExA) will now begin preparing their report and recommendations, which will be submitted to the Secretary of State (SoS) for Transport. A final decision on our DCO is expected to be announced in October 2025. 

  Over the next three months, the ExA may continue to engage with Interested Parties if they have any questions as they prepare their report. 

  In the meantime, our teams – particularly those working on land acquisition with local landowners – will continue these conversations to reach agreements. 

  If you are interested in reading any of the documentation submitted as part of the examination, please visit the Planning Inspectorate webpage for the scheme.

  Advanced works

  In the next month we’ll begin advanced works, which involves survey and field work to support the collection of ecology and archaeology data. 

  These activities, which will take place along the breadth of the scheme, are separate to the construction of the road and can take place now ahead of the SoS decision. 

  Spending Review

  Please note, the Transport Secretary has commissioned a review of the Department for Transport's spending portfolio, including current and future road schemes. While the review is ongoing, we’re continuing with our work on the scheme.

  Read the Secretary of State’s written statement to Parliament of 30 July 2024. 

  Keep in touch

  You can contact our team directly by email: A46newarkbypass@nationalhighways.co.uk

  Use the link on the right of this page to receive email alerts when we update information on the A46 Newark Bypass.

   

• 30 January 2025

  Upcoming survey works

  The A46 Newark Bypass is just over half-way through the Development Consent Order (DCO) examination process before it concludes in April 2025. 

  After this, the Examiners will write their report and submit it to the Secretary of State for Transport, who will make the decision about whether to grant permission to build the road.  

  During the next few months, we’re due to commence survey works across the breadth of the project, gathering more data to support ecology and archaeology. 

  You’re likely to see our teams in high vis working at locations near the proposed road development between March and September 2025. 

  Please note, the Transport Secretary has commissioned a review of the Department for Transport's spending portfolio, including current and future road schemes. While the review is ongoing, we’re continuing with our work on the scheme, 

  Read the Secretary of State’s written statement to Parliament of 30 July 2024. 

  Vegetation work  

  In February, our colleagues at National Highways Operations Directorate, who manage and maintain the strategic road network (SRN), will begin clearing vegetation alongside the A46 in Newark. 

  The area of these works will be the section of A46 leading from Brownhills roundabout, east to west, in the direction of Cattle Market roundabout, particularly in areas which back onto Barley Way and Wheatsheaf Avenue on Winthorpe estate. 

  This activity, which is due to take four weeks to complete, is not part of the A46 Newark Bypass development and will not impact traffic at this location. 

  Similar activity is planned for nearby Halliwell Close, Alexander Avenue and Robert Dukeson Avenue later in 2025 and 2026. More information will be available on our maintenance scheme page. 

  Keep in touch 

  You can contact our team directly by email: A46newarkbypass@nationalhighways.co.uk

  Use the link on the right of this page to receive email alerts when we update information on the A46 Newark Bypass. 

• 28 May 2024

  A46 Newark Bypass plans accepted for examination

  On 23 May 2024, the Planning Inspectorate confirmed it has accepted our application for a Development Consent Order (DCO) for detailed examination.

  A Notice under Section 56 of the Planning Act 2008 informs the public of this.

  Read the A46 Newark Bypass Section 56 Notice.

  Following months of work finalising our plans for the improvements to the A46 Newark Bypass we submitted our DCO to the Planning Inspectorate on 26 April 2024.

  Our DCO is a collection of assessments, data, plans and proposals, which outline how we plan to deliver the A46 Newark Bypass scheme, between Farndon and Winthorpe roundabouts.

  The application also includes our consultation report, which includes the comments and questions we received to our statutory and targeted consultations, along with our responses.

  Our application documents are available on the Planning Inspectorate website.

  The planning process takes around 12 months including six months of examination, some taking place at public hearings.

  Watch this short video from the Planning Inspectorate, explaining the six stages of the development consent process.

  What happens next - the pre-examination stage

  Anyone, including businesses, or individuals, can register as an 'Interested Party'.

  By doing this, you will be able to submit a written representation or attend a public hearing to present your views on the project.

  During this stage, the Planning Inspectorate will also:

  • appoint a panel of inspectors to serve as the Examining Authority
  • hold a first meeting, called the 'Preliminary Hearing' to discuss procedural issues and the timetable for examination

  Keep in touch

  Use the link on the right of this page to receive email alerts when we update information on the A46 Newark Bypass.

  You can also register to receive email alerts from the Planning Inspectorate.

  You can contact our team directly by email: A46newarkbypass@nationalhighways.co.uk  

• 20 December 2023

  2023 Summary

  As the end of the year approaches, we’ve been looking back at our activities throughout 2023.

  The majority of our focus has been on reviewing the results of our consultations and finalising our design, assessments and plans to submit within our Development Consent Order to the Planning Inspectorate.

  But alongside that we’ve been busy in other areas of our work in the community, getting involved in volunteering, charity fundraising and inspiring the next generation of constructions specialists.

• 06 October 2023

  Submitting our Development Consent Order

  We’re currently preparing to submit our Development Consent Order (DCO) application for the A46 Newark Bypass scheme. The DCO application is a collection of assessments, data, plans and proposals which outline how we intend to deliver the scheme between Farndon and Winthorpe roundabouts.

  We had planned to submit these documents to the Planning Inspectorate in autumn 2023; however, the predicted cost of the scheme has risen above the £500m threshold. This means it now falls under the governance of the Department for Transport (DfT) and Treasury rather than National Highways.

  Due to additional governance, we’ll now submit our DCO application at the beginning of next year. This does not impact stakeholders or our commitment to delivering these improvements to this vital link road; we’ll continue to work closely with DfT in the development and delivery of the scheme.

  Contact us

  If you have any queries regarding our latest update, please email:  A46newarkbypass@nationalhighways.co.uk.

  To keep up to date with developments on the A46 Newark Bypass sign up for updates via this webpage.

• 06 March 2023

  Update on statutory consultation

  Thank you to everyone who took part in our statutory consultation between Wednesday 26 October and Monday 12 December 2022.

  More than 730 people visited one of our consultation events, either in person or online. Attendees were able to learn more about our designs for the A46 Newark Bypass, speak to the project team and share their feedback. During this consultation period we received 539 responses.

  Ngozi Abakasanga, Project Manager for National Highways, said: “I would like to thank everyone who took the time to respond to our consultation. Your comments will help us further shape the A46 Newark Bypass scheme, enabling us to improve safety, congestion and connectivity in the town and wider region.”

  We’re currently in the process of analysing your responses from the statutory consultation to further develop our proposals. We’re working hard to ensure we can design and deliver a scheme that benefits everyone.

  Your feedback has already helped to inform some design changes. We’ll be carrying out targeted consultations with statutory consultees and affected landowners to seek their views on our latest design. We’ll share further information on this soon.

  Next steps

  We expect to submit our application to the Planning Inspectorate this summer, the full consultation report will be included as part of the application – all of which will be available to the public.

  If our Development Consent Order (DCO) application is accepted by the Planning Inspectorate (on behalf of the Secretary of State for Transport) an Examining Authority will consider the application, and any representations, which will take up to six months. During the examination stage, anybody with an interest in the scheme can make representations in writing, or verbally at public hearings.

  Although the consultation is now closed, you can still view the consultation materials and information about the scheme on our webpage. We’ll continue to update this page with further information about the scheme.

• 16 September 2021

  Preferred Route Announcement update

  Since our public consultation earlier this year, where we presented possible options for improving the A46 between the Farndon and Winthorpe roundabouts, we’ve been using the local knowledge and views we received to help us develop the best option for improving this section of the A46. We intended to make an announcement on our preferred route in summer 2021, but this will now be later than planned. We expect it to be later this year or early next year.

  There are a number of steps we need to go through before we can announce a preferred route, and we’re continuing to work through these steps, along with the Department for Transport and the Government. We’ll provide updates on our webpage in due course. 

  While we’re not yet able to start the next stage of work or confirm the route we’ll be taking forward, we’re continuing to prepare for the next stage and will be carrying out further survey work this autumn and winter to collect more information about current conditions along the A46 route.