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Motorists warned about weekend Black Cat disruption

Tony FisherBBC News, Bedfordshire
News imageNational Highways Aerial view of roadworks around a large roundabout with traffic queuing both southbound and northbound. Either side of the roundabout workers are building the beginnings of a flyover.National Highways
The works will eventually create an A421 flyover bridge at Black Cat with the A1 running underneath

Motorists are being warned about further diversions and closures on a busy A1 roundabout over the weekend as part of a £1bn road scheme.

National Highways said there would be long delays as construction work on the dual carriageway between the Black Cat roundabout in Bedfordshire and Caxton Gibbet in Cambridgeshire continued.

Paul Salmon, senior project manager with National Highways, said the work involved digging the middle part of the roundabout to create an underpass for the A1.

He described it as "our biggest milestone so far" and "so our message to people is there will be a huge amount of disruption".

News imageHelen Mulroy/BBC A bald man wearing glasses and a blue top looking to one side of the camera. He is standing on a gantry overlooking roadworks which are in the background.Helen Mulroy/BBC
Senior project manager Paul Salmon acknowledged that the works would be disruptive and advised motorists to plan ahead if they needed to travel

A new free-flow link between the A421 eastbound and the A1 northbound at the Black Cat roundabout will be created.

There will also be a new A421 westbound slip road at the roundabout.

In order to carry out the work, road closures will be in place from 21:00 BST to 05:00, between 15 August and 18 August.

The A421 eastbound will be closed between the Cardington Interchange and the Black Cat roundabout. The A421 westbound will also be closed between the Black Cat roundabout and the Renhold Interchange.

The A1 northbound between Tempsford and Wyboston will be closed - as will Bedford Road, between the Roxton Road junction and the Black Cat roundabout.

Traffic will be diverted by the A421 at the Cardington Interchange onto the A603 towards Sandy - and then the A1 northbound to the Tempsford Interchange.

From there, drivers will be directed on to St Neots Road, joining the A428 before re-joining the A1 northbound at the Wyboston junction.

Mr Salmon said that "the only road which will be running will be the A1 southbound".

News imageNational Highways A diagram setting out planned diversions following road closures to allow for work to be carried out. The diversions are coloured blue and the closures are in red.National Highways
Diversions are in place via Sandy and St Neots to accommodate the works

Mr Salmon said: "We have had signage out for quite a while now, even on local roads, saying avoid the area."

He added that the work needed doing now so the scheme would be ready to open in Spring 2027.

He apologised again for the long delays motorists experienced in July and insisted they had learned from it.

He said they had "done around 50 closures to that point and we made a human error and we cannot be more sorry".

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