Cumbria County Council has submitted an application to the Government’s Levelling Up Fund that could see around £19.5m of funding to upgrade a 30km section of the county’s highway network.

If successful, the bid would see a comprehensive programme of improvements works on the A590 through Barrow-in-Furness, A595 south of Sellafield and A5086 between Cockermouth and Egremont. This would include resurfacing; drainage works and bridge repairs together with opportunities for innovation including carbon reduction measure and the use of recycled materials.

Cumbria depends heavily on the road network for day-to-day accessibility, and the routes are vital to link communities, jobs, and services across Cumbria. The maintenance proposals will make journey times more reliable and safer and reduce the occurrence of road closures along this key route due to highways defects.

These resilience and reliability improvements will support local communities and the economy; helping to better connect people to jobs, goods and services while also supporting inward investment capitalising on Cumbria’s natural, manufacturing, nuclear and energy expertise, and potential in this area. In so doing it will help to strengthen and diversify the local economy and help grow the visitor economy along our coastal routes.

Cllr Keith Little, Cumbria County Council’s Cabinet Member for Highways and Transport said: “The Government’s Levelling Up Fund is designed to invest in infrastructure that improves everyday life, and these schemes would do just that. The plans will provide a more resilient highway network, improving access to employment opportunities and services which are essential to help connect people with the places they need to get to.”

Simon Fell MP for Barrow & Furness added: “This bid is hugely important to improving the quality and reliability of both the A590 and the A595. Most people reading this will have sat in traffic as a result of a failure on one of these two roads and this bid to the Government’s Levelling Up Fund, if successful, will drive down such incidents and give us all a more reliable, and safer, road network for years to come.”

A decision from government is expected in the Autumn.