Chowns Mill Junction upgrade to begin

Highways England are set to commence the upgrading of a well-known congestion bottleneck next week on the A45, in the form of the A45/A6 Chowns Mill Junction, at a cost of approximately £24M.

Specifically, work will commence on upgrades to the Chowns Mill Junction on Monday 10^th February 2020 after a combination of a heavy volume of traffic and a lack of space on the roundabout has resulted in severe congestion on the approaches to Northampton, Wellingborough, and Rushden at peak periods.

Furthermore, this Chowns Mill upgrade scheme will serve to improve journeys and reduce congestion through the addition of motorway lanes, the introduction of traffic signals, as well as the provision of better access to pedestrians and cyclists through new signalled crossings which will make it safer to cross the junction.

The Highways England Project Manager, Dean Holloway stated: “This much-needed improvement will bring huge benefits for road users, businesses and the local community as we take away this bottleneck and get traffic moving through here again.

“The upgrade will not only increase capacity and therefore reduce congestion, but it will also make the junction safer and improve the experience for pedestrians and cyclists.”

Another interesting fact is that the junction will be redesigned in a ‘half hamburger’ layout consisting of a new link road that will connect the A6 South and the A5028 to the current roundabout in order to allow a more seamless stream of traffic to reduce congestion.

Finally, one public exhibition event was held yesterday and one other will be held on Saturday at the Carnell construction site where members of the public and the local community will be able to take in information about the project which may affect their day-to-day lives, such as road closures.

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