Drone footage has shown fresh progress at Black Cat roundabout, where work continues on the £1bn, 10-mile dual carriageway between Bedfordshire and Cambridgeshire. BBC Beds, Herts & Bucks first reported the footage, which gives another look at the National Highways scheme linking Black Cat with Caxton Gibbet and the changes now visible at the junction. For anyone following the project, the clip shows the junction layout itself starting to change, not just background groundwork.
For Bedfordshire readers, the road matters beyond the junction itself. Universal United Kingdom Resort is planned in Bedford Borough, according to Bedford Borough Council, and the Black Cat scheme sits within the wider local transport picture. Any direct effect on resort access has not been confirmed, but infrastructure of this scale will be watched closely alongside the resort’s wider development.
What the footage adds
National Highways says the project will create a new dual carriageway between Black Cat junction in Bedfordshire and Caxton Gibbet in Cambridgeshire, improving journeys between Milton Keynes and Cambridge. The same official scheme page says the roads around Black Cat — the A1, A421 and A428 — are known for heavy traffic and frequent delays. That is important context for the drone footage, because it explains why progress at this junction attracts attention: this is one of the most congested parts of the route being rebuilt.
The latest National Highways update says engineers are moving the A1 southbound onto a new stretch of road and building a new flyover bridge as part of the junction work. It also shows that Black Cat is one of the places where the route is being physically reshaped, rather than simply resurfaced or widened. Drone footage is useful here because it captures changes that are hard to appreciate from street level, especially where traffic management and earthworks hide the scale of the build.
What happens next
National Highways currently says the majority of the scheme will open in spring 2027. That remains the next major milestone for the project, and it gives local readers a clearer sense of when the new route should begin to come into use. Until then, Black Cat will stay a live construction site, with the junction likely to remain the part of the scheme most closely watched from the air and from the road.
For now, the main takeaway is straightforward: the Black Cat works are still moving, the road scheme remains on course for its spring 2027 opening target, and any direct connection to Universal United Kingdom Resort remains unconfirmed. Until the next official update, the drone footage is best seen as a snapshot of progress rather than a final view of the finished route.
