Road upgrade costing £1m a day hits halfway point

The works look to alleviate a "pinch point" running between Cambridgeshire and Bedfordshire

A road improvement project is costing about £1m a day as it reaches its midpoint.

The National Highways scheme is building a 10-mile dual carriageway between the Black Cat roundabout in Bedfordshire and Caxton Gibbet in Cambridgeshire.

The aim is to reduce congestion and speed up journey times along the A428, with about 80,000 drivers using the roundabout each weekday.

Paul Salmon, senior project manager with National Highways, said: "A billion pounds, that's the the cost of the scheme. At the moment we're in the peak because it's the peak earth moving season, we're spending about a million pounds a day."

"We are very heavily scrutinized by the Department for Transport and the Treasury," he added.

"There's a lot of scrutiny on this project, it's the biggest road project in construction at the moment."

Senior project manager Paul Salmon said the scheme will reduce traffic

Key planned elements of the project include an underpass for the A1, a flyover for the A421 dual carriageway - and a new dual carriageway linking to the M11.

Mr Salmon explained problems were caused by people coming on to the existing single carriageway from nearby junctions and local villages, causing a "pinch point".

He explained: "This work just unlocks all those problems, unlocks safety issues, that time people spend queuing in traffic.

"There was a huge amount of support in the leadup to this scheme. People who know this area, live and travel through, totally understand why this scheme is being built."

Ahead of major roadworks planned for this weekend, Mr Salmon explained the project was halfway complete.

He said: "We're exactly where we should be.

"We had a real problem with rain in September last year, massive amounts of flooding right across the region and that affected us as well, but we've more than made that back.

"Spring 2027 is when we're open for traffic. Sounds like a long time, but actually we're already 18 months through, so it won't take long now."