Businesses and residents of Central Bedfordshire are set to benefit from two new roads in Dunstable which will be open on Thursday 11th May.

Highways England’s A5-M1 Link, a new 2.8 mile dual carriageway to create a new junction on the M1 and improve east-west connections between the A5 and the motorway, and Central Bedfordshire Council’s Woodside Link, a 1.8 mile road to connect a number of industrial parks to the new M1 junction, are helping existing businesses grow and attracting new businesses to the Dunstable area.

Iftikhar Mir, Highways England’s major projects director overseeing the A5-M1 Link project, said:
“The M1 is the backbone of the national road network, and the improved links that Highways England and Central Bedfordshire Council are creating near Dunstable will help businesses of any size to connect to their customers anywhere in the UK and beyond.
“Whether it is helping an established business invest and grow or attracting new operators to the area, these new link roads will benefit Bedfordshire, the region and the entire country.”

Since construction started on both schemes in 2015, more than 50 new deals have been completed for industrial and distribution units across Dunstable, Houghton Regis and Leighton Buzzard, creating nearly 2,500 new jobs.
Overall, the investment already generated or planned for the area so far is worth an estimated £2bn.

Cited among the benefits of setting a business up in the area, easy access to the M1 and the national road network came top, followed among others by the growing availability of a range of skilled staff thanks in part to the future HRN1 housing development, which will bring more than 5,000 new homes to the north of Houghton Regis and which the two new road schemes are making possible.

The business parks are filling up fast but new sites are being developed which will unlock an additional 52ha of employment land with the sites potentially starting to be occupied from winter 2017/18.

The £162.1m, award-winning A5-M1 Link project includes the building of a completely new dualled road, three new junctions including a new motorway junction, and six new bridges.
Delivering the scheme will unlock up to 40 hectares of land for businesses and provide the infrastructure for 7,000 homes to be built to the north of Houghton Regis. It will also provide better access to the M1 from the A5 and reduce congestion in Dunstable town centre, offering motorists faster and safer journeys.

The £38.3m Woodside Link project will also reduce congestion on local roads as well as provide better access to the M1 from within Dunstable and Houghton Regis.

For the latest information and to register for updates about the A5-M1 Link scheme click here.
For the latest information about Woodside Link click here.

Photo Caption: The new M1 junction 11A, part of Highways England’s A5-M1 Link scheme in the final stages of construction. It will link both new link roads (Woodside Link to the left and A5-M1 Link to the right) to the M1 near Dunstable