Rugby Western Relief Road

The Rugby Western Relief Road (RWRR) is a 3.7-mile (6 km) single carriageway road which is on the outskirts of Rugby, Warwickshire, England. The £36.6 million scheme includes a £17.08 million contribution from the Department for Transport and was expected to be completed by the end of 2009 but the date was put back by a year, eventually opening in September 2010. There was also much speculation that the project went well over budget. Due to its route it can be considered in many ways to be a bypass.

Public consultation regarding the roads was started in November 1997 about a decade before construction began and ended two months later in January 1998. The original road plan had it running through Cawston and not around it but the extra funding was quickly found to change this. In September 2002 Rugby Borough Council had finalised and submitted their plans which were accepted in October that year. In December 2005 the Department for Transport approved Compulsory Purchase and Side Roads Orders, albeit with slight modifications to the plan regarding the extreme southern end of the road. The construction company Carillion, who have also worked on the M6 toll and the 2009 M6 extension, were awarded the contract.

Special consideration has been taken to reduce the environmental impact of the new road. Since 2002 the County Council and Carillion worked with Penny Anderson Associates Limited to protect local wildlife, especially local bats and badgers. Elsewhere over 15,000 trees are due to be planted and 2 miles (3.2 km) of new hedgerows laid. 25 acres (100,000 m²) of wildflowers will be planted and several 'balancing pools' dug to try to help cancel out the negative environmental impact of the new road.

The road leaves the existing A4071 just west of the village of Cawston, itself just 0.6 miles (1 km) outside Rugby. From there it skirts the western side of the town, crossing the A428 in New Bilton before cutting through the north of the town to join the A426 which in turn joins the M6 motorway just north of the town.

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