The long-awaited stretch of new dual carriageway on the A30 at Temple opened at the weekend, meaning an end to the nine mile traffic queues which have tormented drivers for the last couple of summers.

The improvement is expected to also bring big tourism benefits to Cornwall, as well as open up access for business investment and economic growth.

During its busiest time the section between Temple and Higher Carblake carried around 40,000 vehicles a day, with the annual cost of delays due to congestion for business, residents and visitors using the route estimated to cost more than £235m a year.

The successful completion of the scheme is expected to bring more than £134 million into the Cornish economy each year, and play an key role in the future prosperity of Cornwall by encouraging economic growth and aiding regeneration, business expansion and housing delivery, and supporting tourism.

Led by Cornwall Council, in partnership with the Department for Transport (DfT) and Highways England, the £59m project has replaced the 4.5km stretch of road with a new dual carriageway which will not only improve traffic flows, but also provide more reliable journey times and help improve road safety.

By funding the £4m costs of designing and proposing a scheme which significantly cut the cost of previous proposals, and then contributing £10m to ensure the delivery of the revised scheme, the council’s involvement helped to significantly bring forward the construction of the dual carriageway.

Councillor Geoff Brown, cabinet member for transport, said: "The opening of the A30 at Bodmin Moor means better access, faster journey times, less traffic on local roads and millions of pounds in economic benefits for Cornwall. It will also enable our emergency services to travel to incidents more quickly.

“I would like to thank local residents and visitors for their patience while the roadworks were underway. In particular, the small settlements and communities across Bodmin Moor who have long campaigned for the A30 dualling and who will notice a big difference as congestion eases and fewer drivers take detours through narrow country lanes through the local villages.”

The opening of the dual carriageway has also been welcomed by the tourism industry as it has taken over 40 years to bring motorway and dual carriageway standard road from the rest of the country to the heart of Cornwall.

“The industry will be delighted to see this bottleneck removed and open before the peak season," said Malcolm Bell, head of Visit Cornwall. “It will mean that people can drive from all parts of the country and, once they join the motorway near them, there will be no single carriageway sections to slow their journey until they get to outside Truro,”

Around 70 per cent of residents in Cornwall and more than 80 per cent of workers are based to the west of Temple, the new road has been welcomed by businesses.

Kim Conchie, chief executive of Cornwall Chamber of Commerce, said: “The major benefits to businesses west of Bodmin Moor are that journey times will be shorter and more reliable for their goods, people and customers. Today is a huge step towards Cornwall's future success."

Since construction on the dual carriageway began in June 2015 contractors Kier have cut around 300,000 tons of earth, equivalent to filling 226 Olympic sized swimming pools, and laid around 130,000 m² of tarmac, the equivalent of surfacing 18 Wembley sized football pitches and 15,000 metres of vehicle safety barrier equivalent to the distance between Chiverton Cross to Mitchell.

A total of 2,750 cubic metres of concrete have been used to construct the bridges, with 12.1 miles of pipework installed as part of the drainage system. The contractors have also built 5,500 metres of Cornish hedge as part of the environmental works, and planted 15,000 trees and shrubs and 95,000 square metres of seeding, equivalent to seeding 13 Wembley sized football pitches.