Lyminster Bypass (North)

(Position at May 2024)

Background

The A284 is an important north-south link road from the A27 at Crossbush, providing access to Littlehampton and, to a lesser extent, Bognor Regis.

Journey times and accessibility are affected by the Wick level crossing, which causes delays to traffic in both directions and can impact on the junction with the A259.

The bypass is proposed to improve safety and accessibility as well as contributing to regeneration in the Littlehampton and Bognor Regis areas.

The proposed scheme

West Sussex County Council is responsible for delivering the northern half of the Lyminster Bypass, which will alleviate traffic issues through Lyminster village.

The bypass will link to the existing A284 from a point approximately 600m south of the A27 at Crossbush and join the privately developed section of the same proposed bypass at Toddington nurseries.

The proposed bypass will be a 7.3m wide single dual carriageway with verge on one side and a shared footway/cycleway facility on the other. The footway/cycleway will connect to existing and proposed facilities along the southern half of the bypass and A259.

The existing public bridleway will be maintained with a Pegasus Crossing, provided to ensure the safety of equestrians, cyclists and pedestrians.

A new viaduct will be constructed over Black Ditch and its associated flood plain to ensure that there is no increase in flood risk. The existing culvert will be extended at Brookfield Stream.

Surface water run-off from the proposed construction will discharge at greenfield run-off rates via the existing catchments.

As far as is possible, the scheme will be constructed off-line from the existing road network to minimise disruption to road users during the works.

Littlehampton scheme plans (PDF, 1.3MB)

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Benefits of the bypass

The benefits of constructing the proposed bypass encompass both local improvements and strategic objectives.

Locally, the bypass will alleviate traffic congestion through Wick and Lyminster. This will improve safety and the reliability of journey times as well as decreasing pollution levels through the village.

More strategically, the bypass is linked to the provision of 1,260 new homes and 700 new jobs.

With the improved cyclist and pedestrian facilities, it is hoped that more people will be encouraged to undertake local trips on foot or by bike.

Public engagement

A public consultation exercise was undertaken in September 2014 with 61 per cent of respondents in favour of the scheme, although it is noted that 31 per cent did not support the scheme and the remaining 9 per cent did not express an opinion.

Residents were also consulted on two options for the tie-in of the existing A284 to the proposed bypass with:

Option 1 (the most northerly option) selected following results of 51 per cent in favour
Option 2 favoured by 11 per cent, whilst 28 per cent had no preference and 10 per cent responded ‘don’t know’.

Compulsory Purchase Order (CPO)

Following the advertising of a Compulsory Purchase Order and Side Roads Order for this scheme, a Public Inquiry was held in August 2021. On 16 September 2021 the Secretary for Transport gave notice he had confirmed both orders with modifications.

Business case

There has been approval from the Department for Transport of the funding bid for £11.8m.

Full transport business case (PDF, 7.8MB)

If you require an accessible version please email mark.martin@westsussex.gov.uk.

Archaeology

Archaeology works on site were completed in December 2022.

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Programme

Main construction works commenced on 24 October 2022 and the scheme completion is currently forecast for Autumn 2024.

Monthly construction updates

Construction

The viaduct

Current activities are:

the structure is in place and final concrete pours are scheduled for April 2024
the Pegasus crossing to the east of the bridleway has been completed and channel drainage installed
soil mixing to improve the ground to the north of the scheme (near Brookfield Stream) has been completed
culvert installation preparation is ongoing.

Traffic management and closures

Traffic signals will be in use intermittently as required, on Lyminster Road until September 2024. This will generally be 2-way traffic lights on the southbound carriageway between 9.30am until 3.30pm, Monday to Friday.
Traffic Management will be updated on the website as well as on West Sussex County Council’s Highways twitter account @WSHighways.

Details of the design and construction of a new bypass of the A284 Lyminster Road.