A three-week long public inquiry into a £30 million trunk road improvement scheme in Mid Wales, which connects North and South Wales, has begun.
The hearing on proposals to replace the existing A470 trunk road for the majority of the route from Builth Wells to Newbridge-on-Wye, started on Tuesday at the Wyeside Arts Centre in Builth Wells.
It is expected to continue until the end of July, with a week off over the Royal Welsh Show, and site visits will be carried out once all the evidence and objections has been heard.
A total of 61 objections against the Welsh Assembly’s proposed route have been received, with many of them coming from statutory bodies, as well as local residents.
Former senior civil servant and appointed inquiry inspector Bill Wadrup opened proceedings and said the inquiry would hear from various people and groups.
Mr Wadrup said he would come to conclusions and recommendations based on the whole of the evidence and they would be presented to the Welsh Assembly. But it will be the assembly’s Minister for the Economy and Transport who will decide if the order for a new road should be made or not.
He said there are also three alternative routes that have been lodged and the inquiry will debate the relative merits of the them.
Graham Walters opened the evidence for the Welsh Assembly team and said the scheme would involve the construction of an entirely new stretch of road, the provision of new junctions and accesses and changes to the existing highway system.
He said to do this three orders were needed – one to authorise the line of the new highway, one to authorise the alterations on other roads and rights of way and a compulsory purchase order.
The new two lane single carriageway road, if it gets the go ahead, would be 5.7km long.
The inquiry continues.