Work finished on the Oakham Bypass (excluding landscaping) and the new road opened to traffic on Wednesday 10 January 2007.

The new road opened with a parade of 40 vintage vehicles, a fun run, a Harrier fly-past and several hundred members of the public turning up to witness the event.

The 4.8km (3 mile) bypass provides a link from the A6003 to the south of Oakham via Burley Park Way to the A606 north of Barleythorpe, incorporating a new bridge over the railway.

The bypass is single carriageway, with a combined cycleway / footway along its entire length. Roundabout junctions have been provided at the A606 Melton Road and the A606 Stamford Road intersections, with a priority junction at the A6003 Uppingham Road tie-in.

Bypass Officer, John Hall, says: 'We started work in September 2005 and the new road has taken approximately 15 months from start to finish. We are obviously delighted that we have finished two months ahead of schedule and it was extremely pleasing to see traffic using it for the first time.'

Alfred McAlpines Project Manager, David Mellor, says, 'We still have a couple of months of hard work finishing off the various landscaping at various points throughout the site. We have around 50,000 trees, bushes and shrubs to put in the ground to make the new road as visually pleasing as possible.'

Mr. Mellor added, 'This work will not cause any disruption to the traffic flow on the new road.'

The opening ceremony got underway with a fun run at 10.15am with Alan Duncan (MP for Rutland and Melton) sounding the starting horn. Runners of all ages (including some from the Rutland Running Club) ran approximately 3200 metres from the railway bridge (near Schofield Road) to the Barleythorpe junction and back.

A parade of around 40 vintage vehicles (tractors, cars and bikes) assembled from 10.15am onwards in preparation for the official opening of the road at 11.00am.

Shortly before 11.00am, Roger Begy (Leader of Rutland County Council) and Alan Duncan MP said a few words and declared the new road open. They then assisted Tommy Suthern (Honorary Alderman and Oakham Resident) and local schoolchildren to cut the specially prepared green and gold ribbon. The ribbon-cutting took place on the top of the new railway bridge near Schofield Road.

A Harrier flypast marked the start of the vintage car parade which officially opened each junction along the bypass route.