PUBLIC consultation is to begin on the multi-million pound transformation of a traffic-choked Keighley road into a dual carriageway.

Transport bosses said this week the long-awaited £7 million scheme to widen Hard Ings Road had a target completion date of no later than 2019/20.

Negotiations are currently taking place with landowners to buy areas of land needed for the massive project.

It has also been revealed that new traffic lights are planned for the roundabout at the top of Hard Ings Road.

“This stretch of the A650 links two sections which are already dual carriageway and it has become a notorious bottleneck,” said Richard Gelder, Bradford Council’s transportation development manager.

“We have been talking for some months to the owners of parcels of land which we need to acquire and are in the process of making offers.

“These areas are predominantly on the north side of the road where there are businesses, such as Fibreline.

“Negotiation is the route we prefer to follow, but we have to take into consideration that compulsory purchase orders (CPOs) may be necessary.”

He said an extensive consultation would start over the next four months, ahead of any CPOs being advertised.

“The consultation will be carried out through a number of means – including online,” added Mr Gelder.

“We want to get input not only from residents, businesses and other interested parties but from the travelling public – people who may not live locally but use that route regularly.

“Precisely when the scheme will be complete depends on factors such as whether CPOs are required. It must be by 2019/20, but could well be sooner.”

The initiative is being delivered through a West Yorkshire Combined Authority transport fund.

On Tuesday, Bradford Council’s executive will be asked to approve legal powers enabling side roads near the route to be altered.

Councillor Alex Ross-Shaw, the council’s executive member for regeneration, planning and transport, said the scheme and another being discussed next week, for the Harrogate/New Line junction at Greengates in Bradford, was desperately needed.

In December 2015, Bradford Council agreed to use its Compulsory Purchase Order (CPO) powers to buy the landed needed for the Greengates project and made the same decision regarding Hard Ings in January.

Hard Ings Road carries an average of 34,000 vehicles each weekday, with around 2,500 at peak times.