The preferred route of a brand new dual carriageway linking the M1 near J13 to Oxford has been announced by the government.
The selected route announced today means the road will link the A421 near M1 J13 through to Oxford, passing through Milton Keynes in the Newton Longville area south of Bletchley.
The expressway is just one of the components of the government’s strategy for the Cambridge-Milton Keynes-Oxford growth corridor, including the East-West Rail link.
Highways England were asked to explore the case for a fast, high-quality road link to better connect Oxford, Milton Keynes and Cambridge. This included filling the missing link, a 30 mile gap in the network between the M1 at Milton Keynes and the M40 at Oxford, including the development of new capacity at Oxford to relieve pressure on the A34.
The expressway is projected to take up to 40 minutes off the journey between the A34 south of Oxford and the M1, so that hundreds of thousands of people will be brought within reach of high quality jobs in centres of rapid growth such as Oxford Science Park. The preferred corridor identified today runs alongside the planned route of East West Rail, so that consumers have a variety of road and rail travel options.
Speaking to Parliament, Jesse Norman MP said: "This decision determines the broad area within which the road will be developed: the process of designing a specific route will now get under way, involving extensive further consultation with local people to find the best available options. Members of the public will be able to comment on the full set of front-running designs in a public consultation next year, and the road is on schedule to be open to traffic by 2030."
"The choice of this corridor means that the government has ruled out construction in the area of the Otmoor nature reserve, underlining its desire to protect the natural environment."
"The government also recognises that no one corridor can support every proposed development across the area. It is therefore commissioning England’s economic heartland to carry out a study of how to provide better connectivity across the wider area, so that places outside of the preferred corridor enjoy the benefits of growth as far as possible."
But there is opposition to the route from the Berkshire, Buckinghamshire and Oxfordshire Wildlife Trust.
Estelle Bailey, Chief Executive BBOWT, said: "In our opinion Corridor B is the worst of the three options. We told Highways England that the potential impact on biodiversity of Corridor B is so serious that the route should have been discounted entirely. The only way to avoid exceptionally serious impacts on biodiversity would be to develop a road route that is so convoluted that it would fail to qualify as an expressway."
"Our most serious concerns are for the designated sites and nature reserves in Cothill Fen, Oxford Meadows, the Otmoor Basin, Upper Ray Valley and Bernwood Forest."
