Universal Great Britain - Construction Updates

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The A428 Black Cat Roundabout to Caxton Gibbet Dual Carriage way reached its half-way point of construction last month and remains on-budget and on-time to open in spring 2027 (a rarity for the UK…). It is also going to be numbered the A421 up to the A14/M11 junction.

On another forum focused on roads, I saw that the Bedford southern bypass (A421 between the A6 and A600) is expected to have over 95,000 vehicles per day travelling it by 2040, which is well within 3-lane motorway territory.

With Universal, that could be well over 100,000 vehicles per day. I’ll be writing a letter to the Bedford MP asking about what plans there are to reinforce the road infrastructure around the area (along with inquiries about active travel plans) as I see this is a valid concern, especially after the Marston Moretaine flooding earlier this year.

 

[yepthatguy]

The A428 Black Cat Roundabout to Caxton Gibbet Dual Carriage way reached its half-way point of construction last month and remains on-budget and on-time to open in spring 2027 (a rarity for the UK…). It is also going to be numbered the A421 up to the A14/M11 junction.

On another forum focused on roads, I saw that the Bedford southern bypass (A421 between the A6 and A600) is expected to have over 95,000 vehicles per day travelling it by 2040, which is well within 3-lane motorway territory.

With Universal, that could be well over 100,000 vehicles per day. I’ll be writing a letter to the Bedford MP asking about what plans there are to reinforce the road infrastructure around the area (along with inquiries about active travel plans) as I see this is a valid concern, especially after the Marston Moretaine flooding earlier this year.

I think the only plans they have are Universals plans to be fair. Good luck with the letter.

 

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I think the only plans they have are Universals plans to be fair. Good luck with the letter.

I’m not expecting much from them but it’s worth asking about it. We haven’t heard much about upgrades to M1 J13 (iirc the government has to fund it) but it’ll become a major pinch point if something isn’t done about it.

Somewhat veering off-topic here but Junction 13 and 14 were rather poorly planned as routes into Milton Keynes, leading to most of the traffic entering from the east through junctions that weren’t even fit for their purpose when they were constructed. The A421 used to be single carriageway road so Junction 13 was a simpler junction. When the A421 dual carriageway opened around 2010, they plopped two more roundabouts and two sets of traffic lights into the junction and called it a day, still not fit for purpose. A Highways Agency special.

Funnily enough, the Black Cat Roundabout end of the A421 was also reconstructed twice before its current reconstruction. Once in 2006-2007 when the A421 was extended there, keeping the simple roundabout; again in 2013-2014 where they had the chance to remove the roundabout and grade separate it, but they made it an oblong instead and stuck traffic lights on it for £5.6mn. Now they’re actually building it properly at a price much higher than it would’ve been 10 years ago.

I’ll update on this thread (or the speculation/rumours one, depending on which is appropriate) if I do hear anything of worth back from the MP.

I’ve added images of M1 J13 in 2006 and 2025.

 

[yepthatguy]

I’m not expecting much from them but it’s worth asking about it. We haven’t heard much about upgrades to M1 J13 (iirc the government has to fund it) but it’ll become a major pinch point if something isn’t done about it.

Somewhat veering off-topic here but Junction 13 and 14 were rather poorly planned as routes into Milton Keynes, leading to most of the traffic entering from the east through junctions that weren’t even fit for their purpose when they were constructed. The A421 used to be single carriageway road so Junction 13 was a simpler junction. When the A421 dual carriageway opened around 2010, they plopped two more roundabouts and two sets of traffic lights into the junction and called it a day, still not fit for purpose. A Highways Agency special.

Funnily enough, the Black Cat Roundabout end of the A421 was also reconstructed twice before its current reconstruction. Once in 2006-2007 when the A421 was extended there, keeping the simple roundabout; again in 2013-2014 where they had the chance to remove the roundabout and grade separate it, but they made it an oblong instead and stuck traffic lights on it for £5.6mn. Now they’re actually building it properly at a price much higher than it would’ve been 10 years ago.

I’ll update on this thread (or the speculation/rumours one, depending on which is appropriate) if I do hear anything of worth back from the MP.

I’ve added images of M1 J13 in 2006 and 2025.

Just my opinion, but I think this is actually quite on topic. Just a thought but for example anything large that isn’t directly manufactured on site needs to arrive on site, so the access I think is worth a discussion, I certainly find it interesting.

I agree it’s worth a letter for sure. Out of curiosity which of the 2 Members of Parliament were you thinking of contacting?

I sent a couple. Still waiting on a response. Then I saw a video of one of the MPs drinking out of a Universal mug and thought “oh”. I’ll check my junk folder.

On a serious note, sorry to ask but where did you get that old image of J13? that’s really cool. Was it side by side maps?

 

[yepthatguy]

You can see the shape of the slip road!

Thanks! That’s a great shot of the slip road area. There’s no way you’d know that was like that from ground level. Really cool shot. Much appreciated!

 

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Just my opinion, but I think this is actually quite on topic. Just a thought but for example anything large that isn’t directly manufactured on site needs to arrive on site, so the access I think is worth a discussion, I certainly find it interesting.

I agree it’s worth a letter for sure. Out of curiosity which of the 2 Members of Parliament were you thinking of contacting?

I sent a couple. Still waiting on a response. Then I saw a video of one of the MPs drinking out of a Universal mug and thought “oh”. I’ll check my junk folder.

On a serious note, sorry to ask but where did you get that old image of J13? that’s really cool. Was it side by side maps?

I was going to contact Mohammad Yasin.

Now that I think about it, it’ll probably be the main route to the site, at least until Black Cat is reconstructed.

I used Google Earth’s Historical Imagery feature to get the old image of J13, it’s quite cool because you can see the road network develop over time. You can also see the lack of long-sighted/integrated planning with things being rebuilt a few times over (which is a national issue but I won’t go further into that here).

I really do believe that, with proper planning guidelines in place for infrastructure, Bedford can benefit hugely from Universal. East West Rail is going to completely change the railway facilities with both Bedford Station and Bedford St. John’s being rebuilt, the latter unlocking transport oriented development on land that isn’t being used, some of which is expected to add to the Hospital floor space according to the recent “You Said, We Did” statement from EWR.

Services in the area have not seen investment whilst the population has increased with new suburban developments. This will only continue as Bedford will need to accommodate Universal’s staff so services definitely need to be improved. With all this transport investment it’d be a waste not to invest in active travel networks / making active travel attractive with guidelines akin to those Dutch road planners use. To them, integrated planning is key.

I’ll cover this in my letter to the MP, but if they don’t respond I’ll have to try and get their attention another way. I might even start a blog about it haha. That would allow for some deeper exploration of these topics.

That response was a bit more off topic haha.