Some more great news for the city today: the Government has announced that funding to replace the vital Northam Rail Bridge and a commitment to progress other local road projects has been secured.
This comes after Satvir Kaur, MP for my neighbouring constituency of Southampton Itchen, and I wrote to the the transport minister earlier this year to urge support for the strong bid put forward by Southampton City Council.
This is a transformative investment for road users in Southampton and its importance, just a short distance from the UK’s busiest export port, cannot be understated.
Replacing the century-old and deteriorating existing Northam Rail bridge with a new widened replacement will help address the bottlenecks on a key road corridor that are all-too-familiar to drivers and passengers in the city. But this is about more than just the day-to-day experience of road users in our city. As part of one of the city’s strategically key road corridors, improving this critical bit of infrastructure will be vital for promoting continued economic growth and greater connectivity in Southampton and wider region.
That’s why Satvir and I were keen to add our backing to the huge public and local political support for this project and I’m really pleased that it can now be taken forward thanks to investment from this Labour government.
You can read more about today’s good news – part of a £27 billion investment to upgrade and future-proof roads across the whole country – on the government’s website.