Lord Blunkett – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Transport

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Lord Blunkett on 2015-10-28.

To ask Her Majesty’s Government, following the accident on the M1 on 12 October, how long it took the Highways Agency to reopen junction 25 on the southbound carriageways, and how far north diversions were put in place.

Lord Ahmad of Wimbledon

Highways England report that the incident occurred around 2:15 am, with the carriageway fully reopened by 9:25 pm. Diversions were initially put in place from junction 25 of the M1, with traffic diverted onto the A52 westbound, the A5111 southbound, the A6 southbound and the A50 eastbound, to re-join the M1 at junction 24. Unfortunately, there was a second incident on the slip road of the M1 at junction 25, resulting in a lane being closed. This meant the M1 closure was extended further north to junction 26 until this incident was cleared.

Variable Message Signs were set prior to junction 38, in order to encourage drivers to divert via the A38. In addition, messages were displayed on the M62, A1(M), M18, A46, A52 and A38.