Watford Roadworks This Week: Stephenson Way Shut From 6 Oct

The A4008 Stephenson Way closes completely for 10 days from Tuesday 6 October. The closure runs the whole length of the road, from the M1 junction 5 roundabout to the Waterfields Way roundabout. That is 2,430 metres of the road most Watford drivers use to reach the motorway, and the Colonial Way roundabout goes with it.

A second wave follows from Monday 12 October. Hertfordshire County Council’s latest batch of notices, published on 25 September, adds closures of:

• the A412 St Albans Road in North Watford, between Leavesden Road and Balmoral Road
• the A405 North Orbital Road, between St Albans Road and the A41 North Western Avenue roundabout, plus two A41 slip roads at that roundabout
• the A4145 Tolpits Lane, between the Dwight Road roundabout and Chaffinch Lane
• Bellmount Wood Avenue in Cassiobury

Each is scheduled to take five days. Full extents and diversions are below.

This weekend, Saturday 3 and Sunday 4 October, the motorways near Watford are clear. National Highways’ closure report has nothing booked on the M1 between junctions 1 and 8, or on the M25 between junctions 16 and 21a, on either night. Southern trains to Watford Junction are off from Saturday evening, though.

The A4008 Stephenson Way closes for 10 days from 6 October

This is the biggest Watford street closure on the books. It exists only in a statutory notice published on 18 September. It is still an intended order: the council’s 25 September batch did not confirm it as made.

Hertfordshire County Council intends to close, from Tuesday 6 October and for works scheduled to take 10 days:

• A4008 Stephenson Way, from the A41 North Western Avenue and M1 junction 5 roundabout to the A411 Waterfields Way roundabout, about 2,430 metres
• the Colonial Way roundabout, Bushey, for its entire length
• the A4008 Stephenson Way link road at Bushey, about 459 metres
• the A411 Beechen Grove link road, Watford, to Stephenson Way, about 190 metres
• the A4008 Stephenson Way link road, Watford, down to the Waterfields Way roundabout, about 169 metres

Waiting is banned on both sides of all of them while works are in progress. The notice does not say what the works are. Queries go to Hertfordshire County Council on 0300 123 4047.

The published diversion is a long way round. It runs via:

• the A41 Otterspool Way, Elton Way and Tylers Way
• the A411 Elstree Road, Sparrows Herne, High Street, London Road and Chalk Hill
• the A4008 Aldenham Road and Pinner Road
• the A411 Lower High Street, Dalton Way and Waterfields Way

Or the same loop in reverse. That sends motorway traffic through Bushey. As always, the order only bites on the days and times shown on signs on the road, and “intends to make” means the date can still move.

What closes from 12 October

All of these come from the 25 September notice. Each is an intended order, in force from Monday 12 October, with works scheduled to take five days.

A412 St Albans Road, North Watford. About 550 metres is closed between Leavesden Road and Balmoral Road, except for access. The diversion uses the A411 Hempstead Road and the A41 North Western Avenue. Queries go to Ringway on 0300 123 4047.

A405 North Orbital Road. About 2,306 metres is closed between the A412 St Albans Road and the A41 North Western Avenue roundabout. The diversion is via St Albans Road and North Western Avenue. A separate order in the same batch closes two short slip roads at that roundabout:

• the A41 westbound slip onto the A405 roundabout, about 355 metres, diverted via the A411 Hempstead Road roundabout
• the A405 westbound slip onto the A41, about 225 metres, diverted via the A41 Dome roundabout

National Highways’ diversion for its M1 junction 6 to 8 closures also uses the A405 North Orbital Road, so watch for both.

A4145 Tolpits Lane, west Watford. About 556 metres is closed from the Dwight Road roundabout to Chaffinch Lane. The signed diversion is long: Moor Lane, the A404 through Rickmansworth, the A412 back into Watford, the ring road, Vicarage Road and Wiggenhall Road.

Bellmount Wood Avenue, Cassiobury. About 428 metres is closed, except for access, between Langley Way and Cassiobury Drive. Waiting is banned on both sides while the works run.

Smaller items from the same day:

• West Drive, about 15 metres, closed for one day for a water main repair, except for access
• Reeds Crescent, no waiting, loading or unloading on the east side between Hallam Close and Keele Close for one day, for refurbishment works
• Puttenham Close, South Oxhey, closed for its entire length, access maintained

Other Watford street closures

These are statutory temporary traffic orders from Hertfordshire County Council, the highway authority for every road in the borough except the M1 and M25. Each gives a start date and how long the works should take. None runs continuously for that whole period.

Chalk Hill should now be clear. Its order took effect on 14 September with works scheduled to take 18 days, so the closure on the A411 through Bushey should be finished. That matters, because Chalk Hill is part of the Stephenson Way diversion.

Rickmansworth loses two footbridges for five days from 5 October. The notice says there is no alternative route for either, and that access will be maintained wherever possible. The contractor is Octavius Infrastructure, on 07392 094426.

The 11 September notice, the 18 September notice and the 25 September notice carry the full extents, diversions and contractor phone numbers. The council’s next weekly batch had not reached the Public Notice Portal when we checked on 3 October.

Motorways: what is shut overnight

National Highways now re-uploads its seven-day closure report every day. The copy we read on 3 October covers Friday 2 to Thursday 8 October. Two closures in it matter for Watford and Rickmansworth, both on the four nights from Monday 5 to Thursday 8 October.

The M1 northbound closure to Watford’s junction has dropped out. The report’s last night for the junction 1 to junction 5 surfacing closure was Friday 2 October. Nothing is booked on that stretch from Saturday 3 to Thursday 8 October.

The M1 junction 6 to 8 northbound nights are not in the report yet. National Highways’ scheme page, last updated on 10 September, still says the M1 northbound between junctions 6 and 8 closes overnight Monday to Thursday, 10pm to 5am, from 5 to 20 October. The closure report does not book it on any of the four nights from 5 to 8 October. The report is the agency’s daily operating record, so treat the scheme page’s dates as the outer limit.

The M1 southbound closure at Watford’s junction has not been booked

A statutory notice, reference NH/SE/2026/M1/72, was advertised in the Watford Observer on 11 September. It authorises overnight closure of the M1 southbound between junction 6a and junction 5 at Berrygrove, plus every slip road on that length, between 21:00 and 06:00. It was expected to start on 26 September and last about two weeks.

It is still not in the closure report. Nothing is booked M1 southbound between junctions 6a and 5 on any night up to Thursday 8 October. A notice sets the outer limit of what may be closed; it does not commit the agency to a date. If it does run, the published diversion sends M1 traffic anticlockwise round the M25 to junction 20, then east along the A41 past Watford to junction 5. National Highways gives 0300 123 5000 for enquiries.

Trains from Watford

This weekend, Saturday 3 and Sunday 4 October, from National Rail’s engineering pages:

• No Southern trains between Shepherd’s Bush and Watford Junction from 19:45 on Saturday until 13:00 on Sunday, and again from 20:00 on Sunday to the end of service. London Northwestern tickets are accepted between Euston and Watford Junction, and the notice lists acceptance on the Bakerloo line between Oxford Circus and Harrow and Wealdstone and on the Lioness line between Euston and Watford Junction.
• Bushey has a reduced late-night and morning service from about 22:00 on Saturday until 12:00 on Sunday, with some trains calling to let passengers off only. The 23:40 from Euston to Northampton on Sunday will not call there, according to the Bushey notice.

Today, Saturday 3 October: the Lioness line and the Metropolitan line are both running a good service, according to TfL’s status feed.

The next two weekends cut the Lioness line short at the London end. TfL’s planned works for Saturday 10 and Sunday 11 October, and again for Saturday 17 and Sunday 18 October, say:

• on Saturday, between 06:30 and 20:30, trains leaving Watford Junction at 30 minutes past each hour terminate at Kilburn High Road
• from 07:15 until 21:15, the Euston trains at 15 minutes past each hour start from Kilburn High Road instead
• on Sunday the same pattern runs from 11:30 to 20:30 out of Watford, and from 12:15 to 21:15 out of Euston

The other Lioness trains still run through to Euston.

The Oxhey Grange footbridge is gone. Network Rail lifted the deteriorated footbridge out over the weekend of 20 September. Its statement of 21 September says it will “continue to engage with local stakeholders as plans for a future replacement crossing are developed”. There is still no date for a replacement. The bridge linked Oxhey Grange with The Pathway and Anthony Close.

TfL’s planned closures schedule also lists the whole Lioness line closed on Saturday 21 and Sunday 22 November, and the Metropolitan line closed between Harrow-on-the-Hill and Watford from Thursday 18 to Sunday 21 February 2027.

What parking costs

Watford Borough Council runs the town centre car parks. The tariffs below come from the council’s own car park directory records, read again on 3 October 2026 and unchanged since August.

Permit parking is being extended into Balmoral Road, and you have until 9 October to object. Watford Borough Council published a notice of proposal on 18 September to bring Balmoral Road, between St Albans Road and Bradshaw Road, into the Callowland zone NA permit parking area. On the south side, next to numbers 2 to 46, parking would become permit holders only from 8am to 10am and 5pm to 10pm, Monday to Saturday. Properties at 1 to 48 Balmoral Road that meet the criteria would be able to buy permits, and the notice prints the prices: £36 for a first resident’s permit, £76 for a second (£36 for a motorcycle), 30p an hour or £2 a day for a visitor permit, and £10 a week for a virtual one. Objections and representations of support go to parkingconsultation@watford.gov.uk by 23:59 on 9 October 2026.

A separate proposal would ban waiting at any time on parts of Richfield Road in Bushey. Hertfordshire County Council is consulting on it under reference H00426, and objections go to tro.team@hertfordshire.gov.uk by the same date, 9 October.

No stopping at any time on parts of the A41 and A405 is also proposed. Hertfordshire County Council published a county-wide clearway proposal on 30 September. Its schedule includes parts of the A41 at Watford and Bushey and the A405 at Watford and Garston. The plans are at hertfordshire.gov.uk/trafficorders under reference J00226, and objections go to tro.team@hertfordshire.gov.uk by 21 October 2026.

You can pay with more than one app. Watford Borough Council joined the National Parking Platform on 7 September, and its own listing there names six approved apps for the borough: APCOA Parking, AppyParking, Caura, JustPark, RingGo and PayByPhone. The council’s individual car park pages still show RingGo alone, so check the platform’s own Watford listing if you want to use a different one. We have the full list and what changed.

The old £3.30 evening flat rate has gone. The council’s live car park pages show no flat rate after 5pm at the Town Hall, just the normal scale, and Town Hall bands 10p higher than The Avenue’s. If you used to leave the car in town for the evening for £3.30, budget £6.70 instead. Motorcycles park free at both with a displayed ticket. Both take cash and card as well as the apps, and the RingGo location codes are 5312788 for The Avenue and 5312789 for the Town Hall.

At the station, the Watford Junction car park is run by Saba for London Northwestern Railway: £11.50 for a weekday entry before 10am, £8.50 after that and at weekends and on bank holidays, £15.50 for a weekend ticket from Friday 10am to Monday 4am, £38.80 a week, £143 a month or £1,290 a year. Drop-off is free for 20 minutes. Full detail is on Watford trains to London.

There is no park and ride serving Watford. The nearest thing to one is parking at an outer Metropolitan line station and taking the Tube in, or using the station car park itself.

The four ways in and out

The A41 is the spine, running past the town as North Western Avenue, Colne Way and Otterspool Way. It carries traffic north west to M25 junction 20, the Kings Langley interchange, and it meets the Watford ring road twice. Junction 19, the one signed for Watford, is on the same road.

The A4008, Stephenson Way, is the link most people actually use for the motorway. It leaves the A412 at a roundabout and heads east to join the A41 and M1 junction 5 at Berrygrove. It is the road closing for 10 days from 6 October.

The A412 runs south west through Croxley Green towards Rickmansworth and on to Uxbridge, and north east through the town as St Albans Road. It is the road most likely to be congested at school run times.

The A411 is the ring road, a clockwise one-way system around the town centre that works like a large external roundabout, with the access points to the car parks and the shopping streets hanging off it. Beyond the town it carries on east through Bushey Arches and Bushey Heath to Elstree and Barnet. That eastern length, through Chalk Hill and Bushey, is the signed diversion while Stephenson Way is shut.

The M1 resurfacing scheme, and what is left of it

The junction 6a to junction 8 works are a £4 million resurfacing job in both directions, running from 20 July to October 2026 on a stretch National Highways says carries 125,000 drivers a day. Its scheme page, last updated on 10 September, gives what is left:

• M1 northbound between junctions 6 and 8: closed overnight Monday to Thursday, 10pm to 5am, from 5 to 20 October

The September slip road closures at junction 8 are finished. As noted above, the daily closure report had not booked the October nights when we checked on 3 October.

The northbound diversion leaves the M1 at junction 6, runs west on the A405 North Orbital Road, joins Watford Road and then the A41 northbound, and takes the A414 eastbound back to the M1 at junction 8. That puts diverted motorway traffic onto the A41 along Watford’s northern edge.

Getting around without the car

Beryl bikes are the visible part. June 2026 was a record month with 14,218 journeys, up 56% on the 9,112 recorded in June 2025 after 120 extra e-bikes were added. Since the scheme started in March 2020 it has carried 690,481 journeys by 47,005 different users, covering 1,826,654 kilometres. The scheme now reaches into Croxley Green as well.

Watford Car Club has 200 members since launching in March 2024, with 1,318 journeys and 66,124 miles driven.

The Green Loop is a 6.5-mile walking and cycling circuit around the town centre, linking Watford Junction, Cassiobury Park, the River Colne, Whippendell Wood and the Grand Union Canal, using National Cycle Route 6 and the Ebury Way. Route maps and a GPS file are on the council’s Green Loop page. Hertfordshire County Council’s consultation on widening the Green Loop path along Lower High Street closed on 29 September, and we have what was proposed.

The long-term question is the Watford to Croxley Link. When the Metropolitan line extension was cancelled, the disused railway alignment between Croxley and Watford was protected rather than sold. Hertfordshire County Council has had Atkins running a study into what could use it. Nothing is committed and no date has been published.

How to check what is shut today

• The Public Notice Portal carries the statutory temporary traffic orders published in the Watford Observer. Search a current Watford postcode. This is where the street closures in the table above come from, and it is the only public source that gives the exact extents, the diversion routes and the contractor’s phone number.
• National Highways’ road closure report covers full closures on the motorways and trunk roads, seven days ahead. It is rewritten during the week, so a copy three days old can already be wrong.
• one.network for Hertfordshire is the map Hertfordshire County Council links from its own roadworks page. It runs on Department for Transport Street Manager permit data, so it shows every permitted set of works. It needs to be loaded in a browser, and it cannot be read by a script, so the street-level permit data is not reflected in the table above.
• Report a pothole or street light goes to Hertfordshire County Council.

That last point catches people out. Hertfordshire County Council runs the roads, Watford Borough Council runs the car parks, and National Highways runs the M1 and M25. Three organisations, and the one with “Watford” in its name is responsible for the least of it.