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M1 diversion: Drivers warned to expect delays over weekend

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The M1 is being closed so a bridge can be put in place for the new Kegworth bypass in Leicestershire

Drivers including football fans and people catching flights have been warned to expect disruption while part of the M1 is closed over the weekend.

Junctions 23A to 24, near East Midlands Airport, will shut from 22:00 BST on Friday to 15:00 on Sunday.

Fulham FC fans had asked for the closure to be put back an hour because of their match against Derby County.

But Segro, which is putting a bridge in place for a new bypass. said it had advised of the closures since March.

Highways England authorised the motorway closure but is not involved in the construction of the Kegworth bypass.

Former MP Tom Greatrex, who is chairman of the Fulham Supporters Trust, expects to be stuck in congested traffic for several hours after leaving the Pride Park stadium in Derby on Friday night.  He asked Highways England if they could close the road an hour later.

"It's not Highways England's fault as the game has been scheduled at short notice on a Friday night, but I thought it might make a bit of sense to avoid a whole load of chaos by starting an hour later," he said. "The closure is going to start at 10 o'clock and at about quarter to ten, roughly, there will be about 30,000 other people coming out of the Derby ground. I would expect a chunk of those would normally be heading towards the M1 by car."

Segro said in a statement: "This project has taken months of intricate work with numerous organisations and we began advising of the closures in March to help people plan their diversions.  Given the high level of planning and coordination involved in this project, we regret that we can't change the timings this close to start of the operation.  We apologise for any inconvenience caused."

Traffic was stopped for more than four hours on Friday morning on the northbound carriageway of the same stretch of motorway.  This was after a truck was involved in a crash and shed its load.

From the BBC (http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-leicestershire-44082605):


It's not just on the railways where significant engineering maintenance / improvement work has to be done, sometime or other.  ::)

A fine example of a major sporting event planned at late notice after traffic infrastructure closure for works has been planned at what was anticipated to be a quiet time.

Common sense comment and request for a start about an hour later from Tom Greatrex. But he's right only to ask (and not demand with indignation) in my view. Criticism may be due to the people who scheduled the match to clash, but even there we don't know if they were aware of / checked for other goings on, how real (an how much of a storm in a teacup this is), and what other constraints there were.

A fine example of a major sporting event planned at late notice after traffic infrastructure closure for works has been planned at what was anticipated to be a quiet time.

Common sense comment and request for a start about an hour later from Tom Greatrex. But he's right only to ask (and not demand with indignation) in my view. Criticism may be due to the people who scheduled the match to clash, but even there we don't know if they were aware of / checked for other goings on, how real (an how much of a storm in a teacup this is), and what other constraints there were.

And this person is supposed to be an MP, I thought they were supposed to be concerned about "public sector" be more efficient like the "private sector" ..................... 

So this numpty wants a project that has more than likely been planned for 2 years, several hundred construction workers and their plant mobilised, local authorities, Police etc made ready; the date of the closure published ....................  ???

For a football match that was planned at the drop of a hat ....................... really  :-\

And this person is supposed to be an MP, I thought they were supposed to be concerned about "public sector" be more efficient like the "private sector" ..................... 

No, he acknowledged that it wasn't a Highways England issue and in his capacity as Chairman of Fulham supporters Trust politely asked if the road could be closed an hour later than planned, not sure how that makes him a "numpty"?

Agreed - he would have been a numpty to demand ... he's asked a sensible question.  I suspect that the chairman of a team's supporter's trust has little or no influence over the scheduling of matches such as this.

Looking around for potential "numpties" who are making for significant traffic problems, I'm reading of a couple who've chosen to have their high profile wedding next weekend at the end of a branch line that is having to have special measures put in place to cope, when his granny has a big place in central London that's all set up for big events, has excellent transport links and probably will be empty that day.

Whilst I respect the Royal couple, and agree that they are entitled to hold the wedding where they wish, I feel that London might have been a better choice for such a high profile and popular event.