A6 Diversion, Matlock

Birse Civils with Gifford as designer were awarded a Design and Build contract by Sainsbury’s for the improvement of the A6 in Matlock. A new Sainsbury’s superstore, car park and petrol station south of the River Derwent, in the former Cawdor quarry, with the remaining land developed for housing were the catalysts and funders for the scheme.

The contract comprised an integrated transport interchange and inner relief road in Matlock. Crown Square was the main meeting point for routes into Matlock, but heavy traffic made the focus of an otherwise attractive Derbyshire town far from ideal. With the A6 permanently diverted over the River Derwent, avoiding Crown Square and the scheduled ancient monument Matlock Bridge, the town can breathe again with a less congested centre.

Constructing the new A6 relief road involved (from the west) building a new roundabout where it links into the existing Bakewell Road together with a bridge over the River Derwent to the quarry site. The road then runs parallel to and south of the River Derwent to the eastern boundary of the site, where it joins the existing A6 at Dale Road. The highway scheme includes a new bridge over realigned railway lines serving an access road into the supermarket; from the access road a new link road connects the quarry to the back lanes beyond Cawdor quarry and the site of the future housing development.

• A6 relief road
• New roundabout at tie in to the existing Bakewell Road
• Bridge over the River Derwent to the quarry site
• Railway line interconnecting Network Rail and Peak Rail
• Bridge over the new railway lines
• Access spur into the supermarket
• New link road
• Prefabricated footbridge over existing rail tracks
• New bus station (partly refurbished former train shed)
• New bus/rail station car park
• Lighting and signalised junctions

Full detailed design of highways, bridges structures, building structures, retaining walls, railway diversion, drainage, environmental, contamination, archaeology, earthworks, rock cuttings, signs and roadmarkings, street lighting, landscaping/tree planting.