Highways England have confirmed that they’ve stared the ground investigation work to explore beneath the surface of the new A66 route, using technology to see what lies below the varied landscape.

The teams are carrying the investigations out at locations along the route in Cumbria, County Durham and North Yorkshire.

Much of this work involves testing the different types of ground conditions along the route including soil types and groundwater monitoring.

They’re using ground penetrating radar and have up to ten crews operating from two site compounds on the A66, drilling about 300 boreholes and digging 300 inspection pits to collect the information.

A spokesman for Highways England said: “Although we’ve been carrying out lot of work behind the scenes for several years, the investigations which started earlier in the spring are among the first visible signs that the project is taking shape.

“These ground investigations will help us to refine the designs of the several new bypasses and upgrades of the existing road as part of the £1 billion A66 Trans-Pennine project.

“This work is vitally important as we head towards a final public consultation on the options and submitting our application to the Planning Inspectorate which, subject to the outcome, will allow us to start construction in 2024.”