The Gateshead Flyover will be “gone within a year”, the town’s Labour leader has promised.
Gateshead Council’s cabinet agreed on Tuesday morning to have the A167 Gateshead Highway flyover pulled down, with the 1960s concrete structure having been closed for the last three months due to fears that it could be at risk of collapse.
The exact timescales for its demolition, the method of removal, the cost of doing so, and who will fund it remain unclear, though the local authority has made provisions to spend up to £18 million on it if required.
However, council leader Martin Gannon told the Local Democracy Reporting Service (LDRS) that the flyover “will be gone within a year, for definite”.
Coun Gannon said there was an “absolute determination to demolish it as rapidly as possible”, with council sources indicating that the removal should be completed in the next 12 months – but potentially even before the end of 2025.
Demolition Funding
At Tuesday morning’s civic centre meeting, cabinet member John Adams said the Government should not be “allowed to wriggle off this hook” and insisted that ministers had a responsibility to step in with money to help the council pay for the demolition.
He added that, given the hundreds of millions spent on upgrades to the A1 through Gateshead, the “surely they can have a look at their budget and find money to help us bring down the flyover”.
North East mayor Kim McGuinness has also offered to help pay for the flyover’s removal, though no contribution from the North East Combined Authority (NECA) has been signed off as yet.
The council has already spent more than £1 million on emergency repairs since the flyover’s closure in mid-December, with work completed last week to encase two of its pillars in new concrete.
Civic centre leaders hope that the demolition of the flyover will be the catalyst for a wider regeneration of the area.
Plans to knock it down and open a tree-lined boulevard in its place have been touted since 2008, but have never been funded.
Labour councillor John McElroy warned on Tuesday, however, that the flyover will be “terribly difficult to actually demolish”.
Coun Gannon told the LDRS that the essential infrastructure beneath the flyover, most notably the underground Tyne and Wear Metro lines, mean it cannot simply be blown up.
He revealed that talks have been held about sections of the elevated highway being lifted off in sections and broken down on another site, like neighbouring land on the old Chandless Estate, but that might not be feasible due to the weight of the structure.
Coun Gannon added: “It is not that simple, it is an incredibly heavy and really complex piece of infrastructure which needs to be carefully managed. I am confident that will happen.”
He also pledged that the demolition would go ahead regardless of whether the council received any financial help, saying: “If we can get a contribution from the Government or NECA towards those costs that reduces the liability on Gateshead in terms of strain on the ongoing capital programme, however it is not dependent on those contributions. It is going to have to happen. Whatever the implications, it is a priority and we will have to do it.”
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