Video shows how new A428 Black Cat roundabout in Bedfordshire will look

Highways England has unveiled a video to show how the A428 Black Cat to Caxton Gibbet improvements will look once completed. WATCH BELOW

It comes as Highways England prepares for the scheme to enter the examination stage for its Development Consent Order application next week (August 19).

The A428 improvements replaces the only remaining section of single carriageway between Milton Keynes and Cambridge and tackles one of the region’s most notorious congestion hotspots.  

Over the next six months members of the Planning Inspectorate’s Examining Authority will scrutinise Highways England’s proposals - and will hold virtual public hearings to discuss the plans in detail.

Following the examination period, the Planning Inspectorate has three months to make a recommendation to the Secretary of State for Transport, who has a further three months to decide whether the project can move forward with construction.

Lee Galloway, Highways England A428 Black Cat to Caxton Gibbet improvements project director, said: “The scheme video that we have launched today shows first-hand the wealth of benefits the A428 Black Cat to Caxton Gibbet improvements will have for people who live, work and travel in and around Bedfordshire and Cambridgeshire. 

"Once complete, drivers will save up to an hour-and-a-half on their journeys every week.”

Around 24,000 vehicles travel on the A428 between Cambridge Road and Caxton Gibbet every day. With new housing developments, this number is likely to increase to around 33,000 vehicles by 2040. 

Highways England’s plans will create a new 10-mile dual carriageway linking the A1 Black Cat roundabout in Bedfordshire to the A428 Caxton Gibbet roundabout in Cambridgeshire. Both existing roundabouts will be upgraded into modern. 

The project includes a number of junction improvements, including a three-tier junction at Black Cat roundabout allowing free flowing traffic onto the A1 and the new dual carriageway.  

You can follow the examination process and timetable here