A major road project which will pave the way for a £800 million business, housing and leisure development near Burton has been completed after nearly two years.
The Branston Locks road development, in Tatenhill, will see 400 acres of land immediately west of the A38 developed, with 2,500 new homes, a range of community facilities and a 50-acre employment site, to be known as Quintus.
And Branston Road is finally to reopen on Monday May 28 - three days earlier than scheduled - after around a year of on-off closure, leading to a wave of complaints from angry residents and local businesses.
The development will also include retail, health, leisure and recreational facilities, as well as provision for older people. A new 1,550 place high school has been built by Staffordshire County Council on land nearby – the first in the county in 25 years. It will be known as John Taylor Free School and is due to open to its first pupils in September, costing £30 million. A new primary school will also be built.
The total investment in the area could be more than £800 million.
Bosses said that the county council had delivered a package of road and infrastructure works which will enable Birmingham-based Nurton Developments (Quintus Ltd) to move on site to carry out the main project, together with residential developers.
The road project has been funded through the Government's Local Growth Deal, which was accessed by the county council and Stoke-on-Trent and Staffordshire Local Enterprise Partnership. Nurton Developments has also made a substantial contribution.
The project has just scooped the Best Large Project award at an annual regional Institute of Highway Engineers event.
Staffordshire County Council's leader Philip Atkins said: "This has been a huge project for us – paving the way for hundreds of millions of pounds worth of investment leading to new jobs and new homes.
"It is a credit to our teams that it has been completed on time and on budget and is another example of the county council's successful delivery of a major infrastructure project.
"Branston Locks is also further demonstration of effective close working between the county council, Stoke-on-Trent and Staffordshire Local Enterprise Partnership, developers and other partners including the local parish council to further increase Staffordshire's economic growth across the whole county and make it the right place for business investment and an attractive place to live and visit."
The project has involved a complete realignment of Branston Road to make it suitable for the volume of traffic created by the new development and construction of a new bridge over the Trent and Mersey Canal.
"The new structure, Nurton Bridge, has already won an award for its engineering design. Pedestrian and cycle access to the future development and canal towpath have also been created.
David Frost, Stoke-on-Trent and Staffordshire Local Enterprise Partnership chairman, said: "We are delighted to see this scheme completed. It is an excellent example of how we are working together across the public and private sectors to create new jobs, sustained economic growth and flourishing local communities.
"Branston Locks is one of a whole series of exciting new developments taking place across our region illustrating that Staffordshire is an increasingly attractive place for businesses to locate and grow, and a great place to live."
