Brand new £50m motorway junction is Britain's most expensive dead end

Road to nowhere: Brand new £50m motorway junction is Britain’s most expensive dead end because developers haven’t built road linking it to distribution park

• The M49 was supposed to connect a distribution park to the motorway network
• It was supposed to be finished almost nine months ago but has no junction on it
• South Gloucestershire Council said they are working developers to get it built

A brand new motorway junction that cost £50 million to build has not even opened yet because developers have not built a link road to it. 

The M49, in Bristol, South Gloucestershire, was dubbed the most expensive dead end when it was not finished late by 2019 when it was supposed to be. 

It is nearly nine months later and almost no traffic use the motorway because any vehicles that do end up at a fenced off dead end.  

The 49 was supposed to link a distribution park, used by firms including Amazon, Tesco, Lidl, Next, DHL and The Range, to the motorway network. 

The M49 (pictured) is missing a link road that it supposed to be a network that connects vehicles to a distribution park

When drivers reach the dead end they reach a fenced-off area from which they can see Amazon’s warehouse but not be able to drive to it.  

A spokesman for South Gloucestershire Council told the BBC it was ‘working to influence’ the developers, Severnside Distribution Land and Delta Properties, to build the link road. 

One man who lives in the nearby village Pilning said lorries use an A road instead of the motorway.

The new junction would be the only one on the short M49 – which links the M5 at Avonmouth with a bridge that crosses the River Severn.    

A spokesperson for South Gloucestershire Council told MailOnline: ‘Now that Highways England has constructed the new junction, the responsibility for building the link road, which will provide access to the junction and the wider network lies solely with the landowner, Delta Properties.

‘We have been working to influence and help facilitate construction of the link road and have been in contact with both the landowner and major employers in the area, seeking to ensure that the link is constructed in a timely manner.’

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