Highways Agency

The Project

About the Scheme

The M1 is a heavily used route linking London with the Midlands and the North. This section of motorway currently carries between 122,000 and 140,000 vehicles per day, including a large number of lorries.

The Highways Agency is proposing to widen approximately 15 miles (25km) of the M1 motorway between Junction 10, south of Luton, and Junction 13 where it joins with the A421. This will upgrade the motorway from 3 to 4 lanes. There will also be improvements to junctions 11, 12 and 13.

The widening and junction improvements aim to increase road safety by relieving traffic congestion. Specifically:

• In the area of Junction 12 and the Toddington Motorway Service Area (MSA) our improvements will result in less lane-changing by vehicles, leading to a predicted reduction in accidents and an increase in safety.
  
• Near to Junction 11 we propose to construct a climbing lane designed for use by slow-moving heavy vehicles on the uphill section of the motorway heading south from Junction 11. This would reduce traffic queues and accidents in this particular area where the accident rate is higher than the national average.

Preferred Route Announcement

The Preferred Route Announcement has been released. You can access the PDF from the Publications page.

Publication of Draft Orders 29 March 2007

Draft Orders and an Environmental Statement were published on 29 March 2007 and anyone who would like to comment on the proposals may do so up until 9 August 2007. A copy of the Non-Technical Summary of the Environmental Statement can be viewed on the Publications page.

Details of where the draft Orders are available to view and how to comment is available on the Draft Orders page.

Pre-Inquiry Meeting 29 November 2007

The Pre-Inquiry Meeting for the scheme was held on Thursday 29th November 2007 at Saturn Business Centre, 12-14 Park Street, Luton LU1 3EP. The full notice is available on the Publications page.

Postponement of Public Inquiry April 2008

In December 2007 the planned Public Inquiry was delayed whilst further traffic modelling work was undertaken.

Although good progress has been made on resolving the traffic modelling issues, recent changes in methodology and an increased estimate of the cost of the scheme have adversely impacted on the scheme appraisal and, therefore, its potential value for money. Furthermore, following the recent Feasibility Study into advanced motorway signalling and traffic management, it is also necessary to consider whether hard shoulder running could provide a better value solution, at least for parts of the scheme.

It has therefore been decided that the Public Inquiry should be postponed whilst further investigations are carried out into other possible options for the scheme, including hard shoulder running.

The Government remains committed to improving capacity of this key strategic section of the M1 and a decision on the way forward for the scheme will be made in due course.