HIGHWAY engineers are looking at ways of speeding up delivery of a £225m project to build a three-lane A1 motorway between Dishforth and Barton, it was announced this week.

News that plans shelved by the Conservative government almost six years ago were being revived was first given in June by Transport Minister John Spellar as part of Labour's new deal for trunk roads.

But business organisations, motoring groups and local authorities pointed to congestion and accident figures and said they were concerned that work was not due to begin until 2007, with completion scheduled for three years later.

This week, however, the Highways Agency engineer appointed to run the revived project said the agency was investigating ways of accelerating the design process in the hope that the motorway could be completed sooner.

Atkins, a Stockton firm of consultants, has been appointed to begin preparatory work on the project, which will incorporate new junctions at Baldersby, Leeming and Catterick. Improvements will be made to junctions at Scotch Corner and Barton.

Atkins will work with the agency on an analysis of present and future traffic flows between Dishforth and Barton and a detailed review of upgrading proposals dating back to 1991.

The agency said the motorway would substantially reduce congestion and journey times and improve the A1 safety record, but it could not simply resurrect the designs shelved in 1996.

Project manager David Brindle explained: "The original plans were based on information available at that time and many things have changed since then.

"Traffic flows have increased dramatically, environmental issues have become more important in today's climate and planning issues have changed.

"While the original plans will give us a head start, they cannot be taken as a definitive solution. We also need to ensure value for money.

"The agency has protected the centre line of the original scheme, but that scheme included a lot of detail associated with connections to the local road network and it is this that we need to review to ensure that it meets today's criteria."

Mr Brindle said of the proposed timescale: "We are looking at completion within the next eight years and even trying to improve on that by looking at the possibility of appointing a contractor much earlier in the design process than would normally be the case."

He said the task of the contractor would be to prepare draft orders and an environmental statement. Public exhibitions would be held to explain detailed proposals.

However, the agency still faces the likely prospect of a public inquiry into any outstanding objections, and must deal with the issue of properties beside the A1, bought up when the original motorway scheme was proposed but put back on the open market in 1997.

Mr Brindle said: "People will have an opportunity to object to a compulsory purchase order for the scheme. The agency is in discussions with some landowners already and is reasonably confident that it can reach an appropriate solution with those who were previously affected and are most affected now."

A Bedale, Aiskew and Leeming Bar relief road planned by North Yorkshire County Council was shelved in 1996, along with the previous motorway scheme, because it depended on a new interchange planned by the Highways Agency at Coneygarth, half a mile north of Leeming Bar.

Mr Brindle said: "The agency is working very closely with the county council and is very aware of the relief road proposals and their direct relationship to a Leeming Bar junction."

But Mike Moore, county environmental services director, said that, until detailed motorway designs were available, including the form and location of a Leeming Bar junction, it would not be possible to try to add the relief road to a list of bypass schemes submitted to the Government for funding over the next ten years.

He added: "We have had a preliminary meeting with the agency and have stressed the importance of bringing the whole motorway scheme forward as fast as possible.

"The motorway is important for the economy of the northern part of the county and for the North-East and the case for it is so strong in terms of congestion and accident figures.