Page 22 - Hopwell Presentation (Issue) 08-02-2021

A52 – M1 junction
Roads renaissance
The highway network
Currently “traffic” is still seen as unsustainable – mainly because it is perceived as being polluting, and so undesirable.
But we see this changing.
Government policy is to ban the sale of ICE vehicles from 2030, and manufacturers are falling over themselves to launch BEV’s in the coming years. The charging infrastructure still needs to catch up in many places (Hopwell can have a proactive response to this), but the Tesla supercharger network already shows the way.
We envisage a renaissance of road transport coming, and the opportunity to position Hopwell at the centre of it.
The A52 is a constrained corridor, and M1 J25 is also under stress, and not easily upgraded. Some lateral thinking should be applied here to make sure it is fit for the future.
A site access onto the A52 itself from the site needs careful
justification. A52 is a Trunk Road, so Highways England would object to a pure “development access” – there would need to be a more creative transport story that argued for a new strategic junction provision here, which would be funded by development. This could be developed around longer term strategic ambitions to connect through to Stanton and beyond, and the way we present the renaissance of the highway network in the context of zero emissions vehicles.
Gridserve, Braintree rapid charging station