£40m scheme will link i54 with motorway

In the first council-funded motorway development in Britain, around £40 million will be spent providing new roundabouts and a flyover so that cars and lorries can get from the M54 straight onto the i54 business park on the border between South Staffordshire and Fordhouses.

Wolverhampton City Council and Staffordshire County Council are jointly funding the work by borrowing the money and then paying it back over 18 years using the business rates they collect from JLR, aerospace engineering firm Moog and laboratory company Eurofins as well as any other organisations that set up on the i54.

The deal has been created under powers provided by the i54 being part of the Black Country Enterprise Zone.

Normally councils have to collect business rates and send them to the government but chancellor George Osborne's Enterprise Zones have given them greater control over rates as well as the option to draw up relaxed planning rules to attract developers. The roadworks will begin on March 18 and will last until the end of 2014, just before JLR opens its new engine plant employing 750 people.

Traffic on the M54 will be forced to slow to 50mph for a stretch of around half to three quarters of a mile between the current junction 2 to just past the i54 site.

Overnight motorway closures will be used at various points during the construction of the new bridge and roundabouts.

Slip roads will also have lanes closed. When the work is finished, drivers wanting to go west towards Telford will drive along the new roads past the i54 before going up the new slip roads onto the M54.

Cars coming east from Telford will use the new bridge to get onto the i54 or go around a new roundabout to come off the motorway if they want to head towards the A449 Stafford Road. Work is also taking place on the A449 at the Vine Island in Fordhouses to move the roundabout and create more lanes.

Contractors Birse Civils has already started advanced works removing trees and bushes next to the M54.

Staffordshire County Council leader Philip Atkins said: "This puts the i54 at the heart of the country.

"With this motorway junction, companies on the i54 can get straight onto the M54 and reach anywhere in the country.

"Normally business sites are built near existing motorway junctions but here we are turning this approach on its head, creating a junction to solely serve this development site.

"Making i54 South Staffordshire as accessible as possible means it has become one of the major draws for businesses to locate here."

"Construction of the junction is a significant milestone in the development of the site and it is rewarding to see it reach this stage. We knew it would take considerable investment and work to make this a leading centre for business and connectivity is an integral part of this."

Councillor Brian Edwards, Leader of South Staffordshire Council added: "This project is truly unique." Groundworks have already been completed and a 240-ton footbridge over the M54 is in place.