Plans for new Tees crossing linking Hartlepool and Redcar

The Transporter Bridge is the eastern-most crossing on the Tees at present

The Tees Valley Combined Authority (TVCA) will put a business case to the government later this year to try and get between £200m and £250m to improve the existing Tees Crossing on the A66 and A19 later this year.

But the latest TVCA transport committee heard officers in Hartlepool were putting together a different plan further downstream.

Tom Bryant, leading transport officer at the TVCA, told the panel a “viability study” was being put together on the eastern Tees crossing “very much linked” to the South Tees Development Corporation site (STDC).

The 25-year masterplan for the STDC aims to bring in 20,000 jobs on the 4,500 acres site south of the Tees by rejuvenating industry and attracting investors.

The Transporter Bridge is the most downstream crossing on the Tees between Middlesbrough and Port Clarence.

Hartlepool councillor Christopher Akers-Belcher had questions about what any new eastern Tees Crossing could mean for traffic on the enhanced Tees Crossing.

The former council leader said: “From a Hartlepool perspective, if I wanted to go to Redcar, I go over the flyover.

“There wouldn’t be 112,000 traffic movements if there was an eastern Tees crossing.”

Coun Akers-Belcher added there was “nothing to stop a toll” on any new eastern crossing to help its business case.

Richard McGuckin, Stockton’s lead officer for economic development and regeneration, said the report was due on the eastern Tees crossing concept “very shortly”.

Mr Bryant explained the eastern idea would be “much further into the distance” than the existing A19 flyover enhancement plans.

Focus has remained on the existing Tees Crossing which has an estimated 112,000 vehicles a day and troubles with congestion at rush hour.

This proposal hopes to widen the existing bridge with a new southbound lane, install a new northbound two-lane bridge, widen the A66 from Teesside Park, and put in a Portrack Lane relief road between 2023 and 2027.

It all hinges on whether a bid to Highways England gets the thumbs up later this year.