This page was updated in January 2021
Where did the idea come from?
In its Road Investment Strategy: for the 2015/16 – 2019/20 Road Period, (RIS1) the Department for Transport identified six strategic studies to investigate potential options to solve some of the most significant and complex challenges on the Strategic Road Network (SRN) in England, providing long-term solutions to capacity challenges and improving connectivity. Some of these involved building new roads, whilst others involved improving existing roads. The first strategic study area was the Oxford to Cambridge corridor (map, below).
https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/666884/Highways_England_Strategic_Road_Network_Initial_Report_-_WEB.pdf
All the strategic studies involved building or improving roads to a new ‘expressway’ standard.
More About the Expressway and its Stated Objectives
The Department for Transport defines an expressway as a dual carriageway trunk road that is mostly grade separated (meaning slip roads on and off, rather than T-junctions and roundabouts), mostly dual carriageways are capable of providing mile-a-minute speeds outside of urban areas. Expressways are designed to be capable of providing safe, motorway standard journeys that are reliable and resilient to delay. They are generally built where motorways are not needed, normally because the traffic demand isn't there to fill them.
In the case of the Oxford to Cambridge corridor, including Milton Keynes, Highways England, a Government company responsible to the Department for Transport, explored the potential to connect the three cities by developing a fast, high-quality route – an expressway, including filling a 30-mile gap in the network between the M1 and M4 (the ‘missing strategic link’). Traffic along this corridor is forecast to increase by between 32 and 40% by 2035.
The seven stated objectives of the Oxford Cambridge expressway project involve:
Connectivity: to provide an East-West road link between Milton Keynes and Oxford, delivering enhanced connectivity through faster, safer and more reliable connections.
Strategic transformation: to support the creation of an integrated corridor between Oxford and Cambridge enabling plans for infrastructure, homes and businesses.
Economic growth: to unlock economic potential in the corridor by allowing strategic growth through increased productivity, employment and homes.
Planning for the future: to reduce the impact of new homes on the local roads and contribute to improved safety.
Innovation: to apply innovative technology where possible to support the sustainable planning, construction and operation of the new road.
Skills and accessibility: to promote accessibility and wider socio-economic benefits by improving access to job opportunities
An improved environment: by providing a healthy, natural environment, reducing congestion, supporting sustainable travel modes and promoting equality and opportunity.
Notice that the Oxford-Cambridge expressway is intimately tied up with increasing the total amount of Infrastructure, houses and businesses along the corridor, thus fulfilling the recommendations of the original NIC vision for the Arc.
Following our very successful awareness raising campaign, and the actions of many others, the expressway was officially paused in March 2020. The second Road Investment Strategy (RIS2), for the period 2020 to 2025, says only this: “We will work with the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government and local partners on the proposed Spatial Framework to identify the role transport can play alongside the proposed economic and housing growth ambitions for the Oxford-Cambridge Arc.” The same document commits to road improvements in the Arc area only on the A428 (Black Cat to Caxton Gibbet) and the A34 (Newbury to Oxford).