Reducing Congestion and Making Roads Safer on the ‘Northern Gateway’

Works are set to start on Monday 28 June at the ‘Northern Gateway’ of Bedford, to ease congestion in this busy area and make the roads safer for all road users, as part of the Transporting Bedford project.

Clapham Road between Paula Radcliffe Way and Manton Lane will be widened to create an extra lane for traffic, and a specific left turn filter lane to allow traffic heading up Manton Lane to bypass the roundabout.

Improvements will also be made to allow people coming south on Clapham Road to turn right into Sainsbury’s, which will also help to ease traffic on this busy roundabout.

The Clapham Road roundabout itself will be widened to create more space for traffic to flow, and traffic signals will be installed to help ease congestion during the morning and afternoon rush hours. Improved pedestrian and cyclist crossings will also be installed, to make it easier to cross this busy junction.

These works are expected to complete in Spring 2022. To minimise disruption on this busy route, the majority of these works will be carried out using temporary lane closures, ensuring that the route can still be used throughout.

Resurfacing works will also be carried out as part of this project, early next year, which will require phased overnight closures of the route. These will be carefully phased to ensure they are carried out with the minimum inconvenience to road users and the surrounding businesses and residents.

These works all follow on from other Transporting Bedford improvements in the area, which have seen Manton Lane widened, new traffic lights and a new pedestrian footbridge installed to help ease congestion at busy times and improve road safety.

Cllr Charles Royden, Portfolio Holder for Transport and Highways, said: “These improvement works for Transporting Bedford are a part of the largest ever investment in our Bedford town centre roads.

“This busy route will have much improved traffic flows with wider roads, new and improved junctions with better road markings and traffic signals. By using lane closures, and overnight closures only to carry out resurfacing works, we are doing our utmost to minimise the disruption caused by these major improvements to this popular and often congested route in and of out Bedford.”

Judith Barker, Director of Programmes and Governance at SEMLEP said, “Bedford has considerable opportunity for investment and employment growth, so it is important that we back town improvement projects like this. Transporting Bedford is all about making it easier, faster and crucially, safer for people and businesses to get to where they want to be.

This project is part of Transporting Bedford, a project to tackle congestion hotspots in Bedford, funded by both Bedford Borough Council and funding from the South East Midlands Local Enterprise Partnership (SEMLEP), through the Local Growth Fund and represents the largest ever investment in Bedford’s roads.