Black Cat Roundabout is on the junction between the A1 and

A421 The A421 is an important road for east/west journeys across south central England. Together with the A428 road, A428, the A43 road, A43 and A34 road (England), A34, it forms the route from Cambridge through Milton Keynes to Oxford. The sectio ...

(formerly

A428 The A428 road is a major road in central and eastern England. It runs between the cities of Coventry and Cambridge by way of the county towns of Northampton and Bedford. Together with the A421, (and the A43, M40 and the A34), the eastern se ...

)

Bedford Bedford is a market town in Bedfordshire, England. At the 2011 Census, the population of the Bedford built-up area (including Biddenham and Kempston) was 106,940, making it the second-largest settlement in Bedfordshire, behind Luton, whilst ...

road just south of St Neots. It was reconstructed in 2005-6 as part of the

Great Barford Great Barford is a village and civil parish in Bedfordshire, England, a few miles north-east of Bedford. It lies on the River Great Ouse at . It is twinned with Wöllstein, Germany. The village is bypassed by the busy A421 road on the way betwe ...

bypass works to allow access to the new dual carriageway bypass. It takes its name from the garage and car repair workshop which opened in the 1920s at the junction called the Black Cat Garage. In later years the garage was converted to a nightclub and then a restaurant, before becoming derelict for many years. In the 1980s, the current large covered petrol station was opened on the site. Black-cat-roundabout

A metal black cat sign was installed on the roundabout in January 2004, taking its shape from the cat on the original garage clock tower. During construction of the

bypass the black cat was temporarily relocated to the construction site office, before a second larger cat was returned to the roundabout upon completion in 2006. However, this sign was stolen during the summer of 2007. On 12 August 2008 it was announced that a third replacement Black Cat had been installed on the roundabout. In April 2009 the original sign was returned (albeit to a different location), accompanied by a note saying it had been found in a ditch. The roundabout can regularly be heard being referred to on traffic reports because of the major traffic jams that it causes on the A1.

2005-6 reconstruction

The roundabout was reconstructed in 2005-6 as part of the

bypass works to allow access to the new dual carriageway bypass. The roundabout was made much larger to incorporate the extra junction but no measures were taken to improve general traffic flow. The roundabout is considered to be one of the most dangerous junctions on the A1

2014-15 reconstruction

The

Highways Agency National Highways, formerly the Highways Agency and later Highways England, is a State-owned enterprise, government-owned company charged with operating, maintaining and improving Roads in England, motorways and major A roads in England. It al ...

began work on 23 June 2014 to reconstruct the roundabout and its approaches. The £5.6M project, part of the 'pinch point' programme, made the roundabout bigger and added traffic lights.

Planned replacement (mid 2020s)

On 18 February 2019,

Highways England National Highways, formerly the Highways Agency and later Highways England, is a government-owned company charged with operating, maintaining and improving motorways and major A roads in England. It also sets highways standards used by all f ...

announced final route selection to replace the single-carriageway section of the

from

Caxton Gibbet Caxton Gibbet is a small knoll on Ermine Street (now the A1198) in England, running between London and Huntingdon, near its crossing with the road (now the A428) between St Neots and Cambridge. There are tales of murderers being hanged and d ...

to the A1, with construction to begin in 2022. This work, which reroutes the A1A14 link so as to connect directly to the A421, will completely replace the roundabout with a three-level grade separated junction. In March 2021, Highways England announced that it had signed a contract with

Skanska Skanska AB () is a multinational construction and development company based in Sweden. Skanska is the fifth-largest construction company in the world according to ''Construction Global'' magazine. Notable Skanska projects include renovation of t ...

to construct the new road, which it expects to open to traffic in 20252026. Includes artist's impression of planned replacement interchange.

Numbering

In September 2021, National Highways announced that this new section of dual carriageway will be designated A421 (and the bypassed sections will be renumbered as A1428 and B1428).

References

External links