Central Bedfordshire Council has begun the work on the 3km of road between the roundabouts by the motorway junction and Altitude Magna Park logistics and distribution site at Kingston.
Most of the section is within Central Bedfordshire and the project is being led by the council in conjunction with its counterpart in Milton Keynes. Growth delivery agency the South East Midlands Local Enterprise Partnership is contributing £23 million from its Local Growth Fund to the £28.5 million project, while each council is funding it to the tune of £3 million.
Initial preparatory site work began in September. Now actual construction is beginning in earnest.
Cllr Ian Dalgarno, executive member for community services at Central Bedfordshire Council, said: “This section of road is used by around 30,000 vehicles a day. The new dual carriageway will help ease congestion and take traffic away from local parishes.”
The new A421 dual carriageway is due to be finished by the end of 2020. Ahead of that, the Cranfield Road bridge and another footbridge towards Hulcote will be extended over the widened carriageway. The current Cranfield Road bridge will be closed from May 13 for up to 12 months while the improvements are done.
The upgraded A421 road will improve access to planned developments in Central Bedfordshire, such as 5,000 homes proposed in new villages in the Marston Vale area and 40 hectares of employment land that are anticipated to bring 2,500 jobs. The upgraded road will also help improve access to Ridgmont train station, which is due to be enlarged as part of Network Rail’s East-West Rail project.
Residents can read more about the A421 road improvements, get progress updates and sign-up for email alerts atwww.centralbedfordshire.gov.uk/a421.
