Widening of the M1 motorway, UK, from junctions 31 to 32

The UK Highways Agency awarded a contract to Jackson Civil Engineering in July 2006 to widen the M1 motorway between junction 31 and junction 32 in South Yorkshire to a dual 4-lane motorway standard with provision for a future fifth lane on the southbound carriageway. This was a design-and-build contract, with the design being a development of an outline design produced by Hyder on behalf of the Highways Agency. Jackson Civil Engineering employed URS Corporation as its designer; the design team was based in its office in Bedford. The design period was 18 weeks with a 42-week construction period. The scheme was constructed within the existing corridor to negate the requirement for land take, thus enabling the scheme to be brought to construction phase much more quickly. This led to some interesting challenges on slope design and the scheme also required a number of Departures from Standards especially on alignment, including setback, with some relaxations also being required. Construction commenced in January 2007 and the works were substantially complete to allow for all lanes to be open to traffic by Christmas 2007, albeit under a temporary 50 miles/h (80 km/h) speed limit due to communications equipment issues; works were fully completed in January 2008. This paper describes both the design and construction phases.