09-09-2024

Local apprentices completing training on new link road

Three young people from Blackpool have got their first tastes of work on a major Blackpool regeneration project.

Keegan Heneghan, Myles Richard and Owen Brown have all found work helping build the new road at Blackpool Airport Enterprise Zone.

All three are completing their apprenticeships on the scheme with the main contractor George Cox & Sons, spending four days a week working as groundworkers, while also completing their NVQ Level 2s in Groundwork with Preston College.

Once open later next year, the new road will connect Common Edge Road with Blackpool Business Park on Amy Johnson Way, as well as widening Common Edge Road and improving the junction at School Road.

Keegan, 20, who lives in the town centre, has recently completed his training and continues to work on site with tasks such as kerbing, flagging, drainage, block paving and tarmacking, while Owen, 20, from Mereside, is enjoying working with different people and on a varied job.

For Myles, 19, he’s moving from Cleveleys to Mereside to be closer to work and says this is the start of a career in civil engineering. He said: “The work is different to what I thought but we’re on site all the time. I’m now hoping to progress to quantity surveying and stay working for George Cox.

“It will be quite cool to come down here once we’re completed and tell everybody ‘I built that road and am helping to make Blackpool great again’.”

The £18.5m project will reduce traffic congestion on the business park, as well as providing a new access for residents to reach Squires Gate Lane.

It will also create 10.5 hectares of land for new businesses to move onto once complete, creating jobs for local people as more businesses move onto the business park.

Early work has involved clearing the land for the new road, as well as installing better drainage and redirecting utility supplies.

Following a Blackpool Council commitment, the contractor has been able to work while maintaining two-way traffic flow while works continued at Lytham St Annes Way and Clifton Drive North, with future disruption expected to continue to be minimal.

Cllr Mark Smith, Cabinet Member for Levelling Up (Place) at Blackpool Council, said: “The Enterprise Zone is all about supporting business and creating jobs. So far, the contractor has made good progress on the new road, while meeting our expectations for contractors to support local people and companies, by hiring locally where possible, creating apprenticeships and sub-contracting work to companies in Blackpool and on the Enterprise Zone.”

Support to build the new access road at the Enterprise Zone has been provided through a £7.5m grant from UK Government

The new link road would include active and green travel routes, along with sustainable drainage to improve biodiversity in the area.

For more information on the Blackpool Airport Enterprise Zone and to stay up to date with the programme, visit www.blackpoolez.com.

For more information on making Blackpool better, visit www.blackpool.gov.uk/betterblackpool