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Multimillion-pound junction remains unused months after completion due to lack of link road
A junction that was finished in December 2019 has still not been used – because developers have not built a link road to it.
The junction on the M49 at Avonmouth, Bristol, which Highways England says has cost between £40m and £50m, was built to connect the motorway to a nearby distribution park used by firms including Tesco, Amazon and Next.
However, nearly nine months after it was due to launch, no traffic is using it and motorists that drive down the junction come to a dead-end.
Councillor Adrian Rush, the Liberal Democrat member for Planning, Transport and Strategic Environment at the council, told Yahoo News UK that the structure was a “junction to nowhere”.
He said: "South Gloucestershire is expected to take huge amounts of growth over the next decade – but the Conservative council, metro mayor and government are incapable of doing something as basic as making sure a road to connect a motorway junction to a distribution centre gets built.
They've left us with a junction to nowhere – it's no wonder people locally are losing faith in the Conservatives."
James Long, a former worker at the distribution park who lives in the nearby village of Pilning, said "thousands" of lorries are forced to use an A-road to access the motorway network.
A spokesman for South Gloucestershire Council told the BBC it was "working to influence" developers Severnside Distribution Land and Delta Properties to build the link road.
The new junction would be the only one on the short M49 – which links the M5 at Avonmouth with a bridge that crosses the River Severn.
Councillor Toby Savage, the leader of South Gloucestershire Council, told Yahoo News UK that the delay was “absolutely ridiculous”.
He added: “The deal between Highways England and the private sector landowner to build the new junction should be robust enough to ensure it is connected into the wider network asap to be of maximum benefit to all.”
A council spokesperson added to the BBC that "responsibility for building the link road... lies solely with the landowner" and the council was working to "influence and help facilitate construction" of the road in a "timely manner".
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Highways England, which built the junction, said: "South Gloucestershire Council is currently working towards [building the road] with developers.”
Colin Bird, Highways England’s South West Programme Leader, told the Bristol Post: “We have completed the main construction of the new junction on schedule, and this will allow local developers to connect into the junction.
“The new junction will be open to traffic once the link roads are completed and connected to the local road network, and South Gloucestershire Council is currently working towards this with developers.”
Yahoo News UK has contacted Central Park Bristol, which is owned by Delta Properties, and representatives from South Gloucestershire council for comment, as well as the area’s MP.
