£27m Luton road upgrade funding approved

Luton Borough Council has secured funding to go ahead with a £27m scheme to improve a heavily congested junction off the M1.



The council secured cash from the Regional Growth Fund this week after it successfully argued the roundabout at junction 10a was the weak link between £800m improvements to the M1 and the recently completed East Luton Corridor.

Transport minister Theresa Villiers said: “I expect this scheme will create a huge number of jobs – potentially up to 2,000 – in construction and from employment at surrounding sites, plus it will really unlock the full benefits of previous improvements to the M1 and Airport Way.

“By improving J10a of the M1, the south and east of Luton will receive a major boost for local employment and housing.

"Drivers will also get a welcome relief from the traffic jams that are such a headache on this part of our road network,” she added.

An application is now to be submitted to the Infrastructure Planning Commission at the end of this year, with a public hearing in spring 2012.

The project would see the removal of the existing roundabout and widening of the M1 spur road to three lanes, to provide a continuous east-west carriageway with a speed limit of 50mph.

Two new roundabouts would be built to allow road users to join and leave London Road and the M1 spur. London Road itself would be realigned, to pass under the M1 spur, with pedestrians and cycle routes also provided.