A package of safety measures to prevent accidents on the A1 in North Yorkshire will be delivered in advance of a major scheme to upgrade the route to motorway status, the Highways Agency announced today.

Last year the Government announced £314 million of funding to allow the motorway upgrade of the A1 between Leeming and Barton to start in 2014.

The £1.1 million package of safety measures, which will start this month, will include measures to reduce the risk of side-on and shunt-style collisions by closing gaps in the central reservation and improving safety where side roads and private accesses join the A1.

Vanessa Gilbert, of the Highways Agency, said: “Closing the gaps will bring significant road safety benefits along this stretch of the A1 where almost half of personal injury accidents over the last five years have been directly associated with manoeuvres at these minor junctions, private accesses or central reservation gaps.”