£50m South Gloucestershire M49 dead-end junction 'still two years from opening'

The next steps for the junction is subject to conflict between officials at South Gloucestershire Council and National Highways. Credit: LDRS

The M49's 'junction to nowhere' is still two years away from opening – five years after it was built, according to metro mayor Dan Norris.

The dead-end motorway roundabout cost £50million to build and was finished in 2019.

The junction near Avonmouth is supposed to link Central Park - a large warehouse and distribution centre used by Tesco, Lidl and Amazon - to the M49.

But it remains unconnected to the local road network due to a conflict of responsibility between two organisational bodies - South Gloucestershire Council and National Highways (formerly Highways England).

The Metro Mayor called the confusion between the bodies a "colossal mistake".

Despite the Labour regional mayor providing a timescale for the saga to be resolved, the council says it cannot confirm a programme of work because it is "technically complex" and the "best engineering solutions" still need to be decided.

It says it needs to obtain privately-owned land to build a link road, something it says it is working on this while designing the highway.

Last October the local authority’s cabinet made a decision behind closed doors that it said represented an "important step forwards" in ending the deadlock.

Few details of this decision were released.

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West of England Metro Mayor Dan Norris said: “Isn’t it terrible for our region that we have all this infrastructure expenditure and for want of a decent bit of foresight and planning we don’t have a motorway junction that could work and alleviate those pressures on local communities around that area?

"I am absolutely furious about it. I have made that very clear to the people I’ve spoken to, but pinning down who is actually responsible is impossible."

Asked when the junction was finally likely to open, he said: "There is a date, and I think it’s within the next couple of years."

A South Gloucestershire Council spokesperson said: “We are working with the Department for Transport and National Highways to deliver the M49 link road and unlock the significant benefits that it will bring to South Gloucestershire, local communities and the wider region.

"The link road is needed to connect the new motorway junction at the Western Approach Distribution Park. The public benefits of delivering such a connection are significant and include:

  • realising the economic potential of Severnside and the wider Avonmouth Severnside Enterprise Area (ASEA)

  • relieving congestion on the local highway network

  • improving road safety

  • ensuring the investment already made by National Highways building the new M49 Junction is realised.

"In order to build the link, we need to obtain privately owned land and are currently working on this while progressing with the design of the new road. We are not able to confirm a programme of work at present, as the scheme is technically complex and the best engineering solutions need to be determined.

"We are looking to deliver the scheme in the shortest reasonable timescales and will keep the community and stakeholders updated as the project progresses."

Credit: Local Democracy Reporter Adam Postans