PROGRESS on the £380m scheme to upgrade the A1 to a three-lane motorway in North Yorkshire is on target.
Chancellor George Osborne was given the assurance at Catterick when he visited the 12-mile stretch between Leeming and Barton.
The project to create a three-lane motorway is on target to be completed by the Spring of 2017, he was told.
Mr Osborne had just launched the National Infrastructure Commission at the National Railway Museum in York to oversee the spending of £100bn on modernising transport links and meeting future energy needs.
He was welcomed at Catterick by Rishi.
Rishi said: “It was great to welcome the Chancellor to see this huge project which when complete will mean the A1/M1 is motorway standard from London to Newcastle.
“The old two-lane dual carriageway could become very congested at peak times and was very dangerous with many side road junctions, farms and field accesses.
“Major road schemes like this – and the current work to build the Bedale bypass – are vital to secure our economic future.”
The new commission, led by Labour peer and former Transport Secretary Lord Adonis, is an independent body set up to determine Britain’s infrastructure priorities and hold governments to account for their delivery.
In addition to transport projects, the commission will also look at communications and flood defence infrastructure.
A number of asset sales which the Treasury expects to raise billions of pounds is being identified to be ploughed back into infrastructure projects. The details will be announced in the Chancellor’s forthcoming Autumn spending review.