Congestion and safety problems on a “bottleneck” section of highway between Bedford and Cambridge can only be solved through delivery of a 15km ‘expressway’, an alliance of local authorities has warned.
Options to improve the single carriageway section of the A428 between the A1 Black Cat roundabout and Caxton Gibbet are currently being considered by Highways England and work could start in 2020.
But England’s Economic Heartland strategic alliance has this week urged the Government to commit to a full expressway upgrade of the route, which it describes as one of the poorest standard trunk roads in the country. Expressways are multi lane dual carriageways with limited but high quality junctions.
“The A421 and A428 corridor forms one of the key east-west routes across our area, yet we have this narrow ‘country lane’ section which is helping no one,” said chair of the alliance’s strategic transport forum and Northamptonshire County Council leader Heather Smith.
She noted that both the Government and the strategic alliance share an ambition to create an expressway standard route all the way between Oxford and Cambridge. However “the strategic importance of resolving this bottleneck means that the sooner we have a long term solution being delivered the better”, she added.
Cambridgeshire County Council leader Steve Count said: “With dual carriageway sections either side, the narrow single lane section between Caxton Gibbet and the Black Cat roundabout is the missing link and threatens to strangle growth and the economy unless dealt with in the near future.”
Mayor of Bedford Borough Dave Hodgson said: “A piecemeal improvement here just won’t cut it – a proper upgrade with expressway standard dual carriageway in both directions is essential.”
Heather Smith added: “Our message to Government is to invest once, invest sufficiently and invest soon – the payback for local people, businesses and the UK economy as a whole will be enormous.”
{{item.AuthorName}} {{item.AuthorName}} says on {{item.DateFormattedString}}: