Satellite images capture Caernarfon bypass being built

Imaging satellites have captured a shot from space of Caernarfon’s new £135million bypass under construction.

The ESRI World Imagery spaceborne photography shows where the ground has been dug up over the past two years to make way for the new 9.8km road, which will open in early 2022.

The Balfour Beatty and Jones Bros constructed road will run from the Goat roundabout on the A499-A487 junction to the Plas Menai roundabout near Y Felinheli.

In doing so it will bypass Llanwnda, Dinas, Bontnewydd and Caernarfon.

The Welsh Government said in June that the work was “progressing well and is on schedule”.

“New active travel links have been constructed and environmental measures are progressing including tree planting and wildlife passages which are in place and being used,” they said.

‘General view’

One bone of contention is what will happen to the flyover that passes through the centre of Caernarfon once the bypass is complete.

The controversial £4m structure was built in the 1970s as part of the yr A487 trunk road and prompted much opposition at the time as it involved the destruction of 98 buildings including a primary school and the town library.

However, as soon as the Welsh Government finished construction of the Caernarfon bypass, which should ensure that most traffic from Bangor to the Llŷn Peninsula and mid-west Wales does not pass directly through the town, care of the flyover will soon be transferred to the council.

Gwynedd Council told Bro360 that they would start a public consultation next month on whether people wanted the flyover to remain or not.

There are two main options of course – either keep the flyover or take it down,” the head of the environmental department Dafydd Wyn William told Bro360.

“If we keep it – we can plant around the road to make it look more beautiful. There are even more options if we pull it down – we can put cycling facilities there for example.

“We don’t want to push an agenda here, we just want to know what the general view is.

“There is scope to do something here, and we are at a stage of making an exciting plan to complete it in an acceptable time.”

The council hoped that the cost of any redevelopment, likely to be in the millions of pounds, would be shouldered by the Welsh Government.

“We are already talking to the Welsh Government about money,” said Dafydd Wyn Williams.

“There is more to work than just pulling down the road itself because often there are things like phone lines that need to be redirected.

“Of course, the cost of demolition would have to be compared with the cost of long-term maintenance of the flyover.”