Shrewsbury North West Relief Road axed: cost, risk and design lessons for engineers
Reviewed by Tom Sullivan
First reported on The Construction Index
30 Second Briefing
Shropshire Council’s Liberal Democrat administration is set to cancel the 6.4 km Shrewsbury North West Relief Road as unaffordable, with projected costs having escalated from £71m in 2019 to £162m–£215m and £32m already spent. WSP has received £24.4m for design and consultancy, Balfour Beatty £5.1m for site investigation and piling management, and Kier £2.9m for later phases, despite construction being paused since June 2025 after the Department for Transport withdrew further funding. The decision excludes the separate A5 Churncote–Holyhead Road Oxon Link Road section, which remains under options assessment and faces continued opposition from Better Shrewsbury Transport.
Technical Brief
- NWRR scope explicitly limited to DfT‑part‑funded Holyhead Road–Battlefield section, excluding Oxon Link Road.
- Western A5 Churncote–Holyhead Road Oxon Link Road remains under separate options appraisal, not cancelled.
- Council report recommending cancellation scheduled for full council meeting on 26 February 2026.
- Construction and enabling works have been formally paused since June 2025 following DfT funding withdrawal.
- Balfour Beatty’s £5.1m role focused on managing site investigation and piling activities rather than main works.
- Kier’s £2.9m commission related to oversight of later delivery phases, implying multi‑stage construction packaging.
- Campaign group Better Shrewsbury Transport frames NWRR as environmentally destructive and financially unsustainable in public discourse.
Our Take
The escalation of Shrewsbury North West Relief Road costs from a 2019 estimate of £71m to a £162m–£215m range mirrors what our wider UK highways coverage shows for single-carriageway schemes facing inflation, environmental mitigation and design development pressures, making mid-project cancellation a more visible political option.
With £24.4m already paid to WSP on this scheme, the consultant remains deeply embedded in UK transport despite this setback; related pieces in our database show WSP securing fresh long‑term highways work with Leeds City Council and National Highways’ M5 junction 22A, suggesting limited immediate impact on its order book but more scrutiny on scope creep and risk pricing.
The need to repay over £32m to central government on the Shrewsbury project will likely harden Department for Transport and local authority attitudes to early-stage gateway reviews, with future schemes in Shropshire and similar authorities pushed to lock in more robust cost ranges before committing to enabling works and multi‑year consultancy spend.
Prepared by collating external sources, AI-assisted tools, and Geomechanics.io’s proprietary mining database, then reviewed for technical accuracy & edited by our geotechnical team.
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