Atkins confirmation:

“A report on public engagement will be published in Spring 2025.

The programme for the next stage of scheme development, ‘GCC Option Selection and Shortlisting’ will take around 3 years to complete. This will consist of further option shortlisting from 6 to 2 or 3 options, followed by a more detailed appraisal of the remaining options.

If possible, the stage will be broken down into phases and we will share the outcome of the next round of option shortlisting prior to commencing more detailed analysis. We currently anticipate that this will take about 18 months to complete.

DfT advised that schemes originally being considered as part of the pipeline of schemes for potential inclusion in the third Road Investment Strategy (RIS3) between 2025 and 2030 will continue to be developed, but only for consideration for inclusion in RIS4 (beyond 2030).

The 2031 Open for Traffic date was based on RIS3 delivery, the 2034 Open to Traffic date is based on RIS4 delivery”.