Hi all,

[I'm writing this in the hope that we are all still alive by the time Demon
gets its news server working again.]

I was in Pentavia Retail Park yesterday, which is on the n/b carriageway of
the Watford Way just south of the bridge over Bunns Lane. I wondered why a
place that size didn't have some sort of road bridge or tunnel to and from
the s/b carriageway. I surmised that the inevitable disruption to the
Watford Way during the construction period wasn't worth it.

Subsequently I was gobsmacked to discover that the abandoned slip from the
M1 to the A41, unused since the M1 ceased terminatiing here in the 1970s
(?), is still there in its entirety. It crosses beneath the Watford Way
immediately south of Bunns Lane and immediately north of the Pentavia Retail
Park. At the A41 end the junction is merely blocked by some concrete slabs
sat on the tarmac. The road surface is in ill-repair, and made me think of
the XTC lyric "The grass is always greener when it bursts up through
concrete".

Since the slip is wide enough for two lanes of traffic, especially where it
goes under Watford Way, there is no obvious reason why it could not have
become Pentavia's access to and from the s/b Watford Way, at minimal cost
and with zero disruption to the Watford Way. The only thing I can think of
is that they are preserving the slip road intact for some reason. That would
explain why the junction with the Watford Way has not been "plainlined" even
though the Watford Way must have had its surface replaced once or twice
since the 1970s. The slip road is too big a piece of land to lie unused in
this expensive part of London without a reason. Has it seen any use since
the M1 was extended?

--
John Rowland - Spamtrapped
Transport Plans for the London Area, updated 2001
http://www.geocities.com/Athens/Acro...69/tpftla.html
A man's vehicle is a symbol of his manhood.
That's why my vehicle's the Piccadilly Line -
It's the size of a county and it comes every two and a half minutes

On Mon, 23 Feb 2004 11:57:52 -0000, "John Rowland"
wrote:
Subsequently I was gobsmacked to discover that the abandoned slip from the
M1 to the A41, unused since the M1 ceased terminatiing here in the 1970s
(?), is still there in its entirety.

See this page for more on the subject :
http://www.btinternet.com/~roads/pix.../m1_oldj2.html

Sam
--
Sam Holloway, Cambridge

"Sam Holloway" wrote in message
...

See this page for more on the subject :
http://www.btinternet.com/~roads/pix.../m1_oldj2.html

Thanks. The 1993 incident sort of explains why it is being kept intact,
although I don't see why it could not have been used as access from the
retail park as well.

--
John Rowland - Spamtrapped
Transport Plans for the London Area, updated 2001
http://www.geocities.com/Athens/Acro...69/tpftla.html
A man's vehicle is a symbol of his manhood.
That's why my vehicle's the Piccadilly Line -
It's the size of a county and it comes every two and a half minutes

"John Rowland" wrote in message
...
"Sam Holloway" wrote in message
...

See this page for more on the subject :
http://www.btinternet.com/~roads/pix.../m1_oldj2.html

Thanks. The 1993 incident sort of explains why it is being kept intact,
although I don't see why it could not have been used as access from the
retail park as well.

I hadn't realised until I compared the more recent maps with a 1963 OS map
(from the time when the M1 finished at Aldenham) that the southbound slip
road is on the site of the now-disused railway line from Mill Hill East to
Edgware.

I'm not sure that I agree with the OP that the slip road would be wide
enough for two lanes of traffic. Interesting that the junction was
constructed with single-lane slip roads leading from a (presumably) 3-lane
M1 to a (presumably) 2-lane A1, rather than making the slip roads 2-lane as
you'd get at any motorway junction nowdays.

Martin Underwood wrote:

Interesting that the junction was
constructed with single-lane slip roads leading from a (presumably)
3-lane M1 to a (presumably) 2-lane A1, rather than making the slip
roads 2-lane as you'd get at any motorway junction nowdays.

But it wasn't built "nowadays". It was built at a time when the amount of
traffic on the road, and especially the amount of long distance traffic, was
so much less than now that a time traveller going back would think all
drivers were having a non-driving protest day of some sort.

"Martin Underwood" wrote in message
s.com...
... Interesting that the junction was
constructed with single-lane slip roads leading from a (presumably) 3-lane
M1 to a (presumably) 2-lane A1, rather than making the slip roads 2-lane
as
you'd get at any motorway junction nowdays.

South of the M10, the M1 used to be two-lane. In those days, most of the
traffic used the M10 for access and it was possible (although unusual enough
for me to remember it happening) to drive from London to Luton without
seeing another vehicle travelling in the same direction.

Colin Bignell

"John Rowland" wrote in message ...
this expensive part of London without a reason. Has it seen any use since
the M1 was extended?

Yes. I used to climb through the fence from the nearby local road and cycle
along there when I was a kid. It was great fun having a whole 2 lane half
mile long piece of tarmac to yourself It was overgrown when I was last
there about 18 years ago so god knows what state its in now.

B2003

"Cast_Iron" wrote in message
...
Martin Underwood wrote:

Interesting that the junction was
constructed with single-lane slip roads leading from a (presumably)
3-lane M1 to a (presumably) 2-lane A1, rather than making the slip
roads 2-lane as you'd get at any motorway junction nowdays.

But it wasn't built "nowadays". It was built at a time when the amount of
traffic on the road, and especially the amount of long distance traffic,
was
so much less than now that a time traveller going back would think all
drivers were having a non-driving protest day of some sort.

Yes, but it was the point at which all the traffic coming south would have
come off the M1 (assuming it hadn't come off at previous junctions, of
course!) and I'm surprised that a single lane was judged to be sufficient
even in the mid 60s, especially since it would have only taken one
broken-down vehicle to close the exit entirely.

Other slip roads on the M1 are all 2-lane - or have they been widened since
they were originally built?

I'll have to ask my dad: in the late 60s and early 70s he was regularly
commuting from Leeds to West London each week, which must have been a
nightmare before the Leeds-Sheffield bit was built. The article doesn't give
any indication when that was built, except that it was some time after the
M1 opened. I can remember the extension from Stourton (south Leeds) to
central Leeds being built - probably early 70s.

I hadn't realised that the extension south to Staples Corner was built as
late as 1977. Whereabouts was the bit further south that was never built?

"nightjar" wrote in
:

South of the M10, the M1 used to be two-lane.

Only for two junctions, then three lanes again.

"Peter Wright" Overground wrote in message
...
"nightjar" wrote in
:

South of the M10, the M1 used to be two-lane.

Only for two junctions, then three lanes again.

When it was built, it only went two junctions south of the M1/M10
interchange.

Colin Bignell