Corridor B chosen by Highways England for the Oxford to Cambridge Expressway

On the 13 August, we blogged about the re-opening of the east-west rail link as the starting point for delivering one million homes between Cambridge and Oxford. On 12 September 2018, another substantial step in achieving this was taken as Highways England announced the location of a new expressway linking together the two technology and learning hubs.

Highways England reviewed the three possible routes for the expressway running between Oxford and Milton Keynes. Their report concluded by announcing that Corridor B had been assessed as providing the most suitable route. The expressway proposed for Corridor B starts at Abingdon and will pass either west or east of Oxford, before travelling in a north-east direction through Bicester to the south of Milton Keynes, adjoining the A421 at junction 13 of the M1. The expressway is expected to reduce the travel time by up to 40 minutes between Oxford and the M1.

Crucially, the expressway is set to closely follow the alignment of the east-west rail link and will provide the much-needed strategic road network to accommodate the significant population and economic growth expected within the area. Whilst the combination of the two large infrastructure projects within this corridor should provide both land-owners and developers with confidence to begin working on projects delivering housing and commercial properties in the corridor, there is always the issue of timing of delivery.

Author: Robbie Locke

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