National Highways to 'mitigate impact' of flood

A director at National Highways said the organisation would "mitigate the impact" of the heavy rain that had caused a major road to flood and close for two weeks.

The A421 in Bedfordshire has been shut in both directions since 22 September, between the A6 at Bedford to the M1 junction 13 near Brogborough/Marston Moretaine.

Martin Fellows, the regional director for National Highways in the East of England, said it was a "one in a 100 year event".

He added that significant progress has been made and nearly 72 million litres of water had been removed, and part of the road could reopen by the middle of the week.

Mr Fellows said all the remaining flood water could be removed by the end of the weekend or early next week.

He added that all major organisations were working to get the road opened as "quickly as possible" but where the floodwater would go was the challenge.

More than 2.5 miles (4km) of piping had been laid and the water has been pumped "some considerable distance to balancing ponds".

When this has been completed he said the organisation needed "to access the condition of the road to make sure it's safe for people to drive on".

"We had over six inches (15cm) of rain in this location in a short space of time, a one in 100 year event that caused the challenges we've got here."

Sue Clark, a Conservative councillor for Central Bedfordshire Council, said: "Nobody can think of it as anything other than a national disgrace.

"The only way they can extract the water is by tanker, they’re using a fleet of tankers and they are transporting the water into other balancing ponds or other streams that are not at capacity."

Mohammad Yasin, the MP for Bedford and Kempston, said he had asked Mr Fellows about plans to prevent the incident happening again.

"He advised that the permanent pump at the site will be replaced following an assessment to ensure it can meet future requirements."

Blake Stephenson, the Conservative MP for Mid Bedfordshire, said: "It beggars belief that this infrastructure was built in the way it was."

He said the pumps built to deal with water were "clearly not good enough" and there "needs to be lessons learned".

Mr Fellows said: "We will work with all the partners to ensure we can mitigate the impact and make sure it doesn't have such an impact again."

He confirmed the pumping station that was installed to take the water away was working.

"It simply got totally overwhelmed by the sheer volume of water that fell here in such a short space of time and stayed here for the period."

He appealed for people to stay away from the area as there had been a number of incidents where people had driven into the closures and where pipes had been damaged.

"Let us do our job, let us work and get this water cleared and get the road open as quickly and safely as possible," he added.

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