Tony Blair’s Better Public Building Award has this year gone to a relief road around Bingley in Yorkshire.

The 4.5 km A650 road, which includes a suspension bridge across the River Aire, was designed by Arup and built by Amec at a cost of £49.5m. The judges were impressed by how the project team dealt with tricky site conditions (250,000 tonnes of contaminated waste) and local opposition. The waste was contained and retained on site and the locals were placated by extensive public consultation. The award, which is open to publicly funded building schemes, attracted a record 137 entries this year.