A man living next to a huge road project will access his home through a ‘private’ tunnel that could cost up to £6m. Brian Garlick has been forced out of his home alongside the A417 Missing Link – a three-mile-long dual carriageway under construction near Birdlip, in Gloucestershire.
But he says National Highways has withdrawn an offer of £750,000 to buy the property so he will be stuck with it after the project is completed in 2027. And he said he was shocked at hearing the safest way to access his home when the road eventually opens would be through a specially built tunnel – costing between £4m and £6m.
Without its construction, Brian won’t be able to go anywhere. He explained that the tunnel is planned to be a quarter of a mile away from his house – but the details of its dimensions are yet to be decided.
Brian, 69, who is currently living alone in a caravan park during the building phase must currently give 21 days notice to access the home he was born in. Mr Garlick said: “At first I was a little bit shocked (when they suggested a tunnel) and a little bit over the top but when you looked at it there was no real other alternative for them to do it.
“If they had paid me out like they initially said that would have been it.”
Mr Garlick said he initially hoped to sell his mum and grandad’s 1950s house to National Highways but has now been told it was “unable” to buy it. The authority said the underpass had always been planned to allow access to two telephone masts and help with drainage in the area.
The spokesperson added that while National Highways did initially discuss buying Mr Garlick’s property, it was later confirmed that it sits outside of the scheme boundary and therefore it “had no viable route to do so”. But Mr Garlick said one offer had been made and later withdrawn.
He added: “The way they have handled everything has been absolutely diabolic. I live in a fifth wheel caravan – and I had to buy it myself. The contractors are only paying for the costs of the campsite fees and the petrol.
“I still have to pay the council tax, electricity and all the bills for the house. I have never had an apology from National Highways. They only came to the house in June and said the time has run out and we are not doing anything else. I haven’t heard anything from National Highways from then until now.”
The project costing £460m is meant to reduce traffic congestion at the single-carriageway bottleneck stretch past Birdlip and is scheduled for completion in 2027 – creating full dual-carriageway travel from the M5 at Brockworth to the M4 at Swindon. Until then, Mr Garlick is living in his caravan by himself.
He said: “When it is all done the roads will be far better. The actual tunnel will make it safer. Don’t know how the noise levels are going to be. They say they won’t do any extra glazing until one year and one day of the road being officially open.
“You got to live with it for a year and then if there is noise here we are going to have to wait one year.”
A417 Missing Link programme manager for National Highways, Steve Foxley, said: “We had lengthy discussions with Mr Garlick ahead of construction regarding any disruption to him and agreed a way forward that worked for both parties.
“We will continue to do our best to address any concerns and to minimise any impacts to the community and residents from our work on the scheme.”
National Highways said it wouldn’t be specific on the cost of individual elements of the scheme but added the underpass, which has to meet design standards, will also provide access to the telephone masts and emergency services.
The spokesperson added; “There was always going to be an underpass, and we are currently progressing the final design.”
National Highways’ A417 Missing Link scheme includes
- 3.4 miles of new dual carriageway connecting the existing A417 Brockworth bypass with the existing A417 dual carriageway south of Cowley and ultimately, the M5 in Gloucestershire and the M4 in Swindon, Wiltshire
- the section to the west of the existing Air Balloon roundabout would follow the existing A417 corridor. However, the section to the south and east of the Air Balloon roundabout would be offline, away from the existing road corridor;
- a new junction at Shab Hill, providing a link from the A417 to the A436 towards Oxford and into Birdlip;
- a new junction near Cowley, replacing the existing Cowley roundabout;
- the existing A417 between the Air Balloon roundabout and the Cowley roundabout would be repurposed, converting some lengths of this existing road into a route for walkers, cyclists and horse riders, while retaining other sections to maintain local access for residents.
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