A key decision on improving the Luton Airport junction of the M1 is imminent, the Herald&Post understands.
Town leaders believe the £26.5million project to sort out the congested Junction 10a will unlock business and job growth in the borough.
Luton Borough Council officials are due to meet with civil servants from the Department of Business Innovation and Skills to iron out legal issues after which the government is expected to give the nod to sorting out Junction 10a.
The knotty road and roundabout has been a thorn in the side of the town’s economic regeneration for years, leading to stalled investments.
But Colin Chick, the council’s environment and regeneration chief, was hopeful that multi-million pound investment is on its way.
Speaking at the start of a redevelopment at Luton Airport last week, Mr Chick said he believed the council could hit its target of creating 675 jobs per year for the next five years if approval is given to the investment.
Councillor Hazel Simmons, the borough council’s leader, told the H&P that she knows there are serious investors looking at the town and waiting to see how developments progress.
She was confident that improving the junction would help persuade more businesses to create jobs in the town.
A hearing on the council’s plans for the ‘grade separated’ reworking of the junction is set to take place on Wednesday, February 13 from 10am at the Town Hall, before a planning inspector.
The project would see the removal of the existing roundabout and widening of the M1 spur road to three lanes, to provide a continuous east-west carriageway with a speed limit of 50mph.
Two new roundabouts would be built to allow road users to join and leave London Road and the M1 spur.
London Road itself would be realigned, to pass under the M1 spur, with pedestrian and cycle routes also provided.
Ministers approved cash for the work in late 2011, and the council said at the time that work would start in 2013 and be completed in 2014.
The plans can also be viewed at Luton Central Library, Wigmore Library, Harpenden Library and online at www.luton.gov.uk