Work on the Middlewich Bypass is expected to start in April – but Cheshire East could still have to stump up extra cash, especially if the HS2 Crewe route is scrapped.

The cost of the long-awaited road has shot up by more than £3m since February and now stands at an estimated £95.74m.

Today (Thursday) the council's highways and transport committee gave officers the go-ahead to submit the full business case to the Department for Transport to secure grant funding of £46.8m. Councillors also approved a virement for £3.24m from the council's strategic capital projects programme to meet the additional cost.

In total, the DfT will contribute £48.06m towards the project and the remaining £47.68m will come from local contributions, of which £22.87m will be from S106 developer contributions and £24.81m from the council's own funds.

Cheshire East is confident work will start next spring and the road will be completed within approximately three years.

But committee chair Craig Browne (Alderley Edge, Ind) said: "I do want to draw attention to the fact while the potential grant funding from the DfT is fixed on programme entry at £46.8m, the cost of the scheme, of course, is certainly not fixed and we've already seen a rise of £3.24m as a result of construction inflation.

"Approximately half of this [additional £3.24m cost], hopefully, is going to be met by HS2 but, of course, if phase 2b doesn't go ahead this will be additional money that the council needs to find."

The long-awaited scheme involves the construction of a new 2.7km single carriageway road to the east of Middlewich, connecting the A54 Holmes Chapel Road to the A533 Booth Lane.

Cllr Browne said: "It will undoubtedly bring benefits to the people of Middlewich and the town of Middlewich, in terms of reduced congestion and improved connectivity as well as increased economic activity. It will open up local plan sites for housing and employment as well as delivering a three-metre wide active travel route along the length of the route."

Nantwich councillor John Priest (Lab) asked the council's head of infrastructure, Chris Hindle, how confident he was about the costs and timings.

Mr Hindle replied: "In my professional judgement, and in the judgement of all the members of the team that has successfully delivered a series of major projects in this borough over recent years, we think that is a sensible and reasonable estimate of time and of cost that leaves a proportionate amount of risk for the council which is sensible for a project of this size."

Councillors were unanimous in voting through the recommendations so the road scheme the town has been waiting nearly 50 years for can be progressed.