Ten lanes on crowded motorway to
cut congestion Submitted by: Jim on 10 Oct 07
Ten lanes on crowded motorway to cut congestion
The most crowded motorways will be widened as part of a multibillion-pound
push to reduce congestion.
The Chancellor highlighted the M1 and M6
for improvement in his speech, while the text of the Comprehensive
Spending Review announcement said the M1 and M25.
The full review report noted only that the
capacity of congested roads would be increased and gave no
details for which motorways might be affected. The Department
for Transport (DfT) later clarified that all three motorways
would benefit.
The M1 proposal will cost £2.5 billion
and widen the motorway to up to ten lanes between Leicester
and Chesterfield. The M25 scheme is a public finance initiative
(PFI) that will cost more than £5 billion and widen
the entire motorway to at least eight lanes. The M6 proposal
is still on the drawing board but would cost about £2.9
billion and widen a total of 50 miles in two stretches, one
south of Manchester and the other north of Birmingham.
Yesterday’s announcement commits the
Government to funding the work in future budgets. The DfT
may be able to find ways to lower the cost of widening, such
as allowing drivers to use hard shoulders rather than building
entirely new lanes.
The Chancellor also confirmed that money
will be made available to local authorities that want to test
the use of road pricing.
Overall, the total transport budget will
increase by 2.25 per cent a year in real terms, rising from
£20 billion in 2007-08 to £23.7 billion in 2010-11.
In addition to the road budget, £1.3
billion is being made available to improve local and regional
transport and £200 million is being spent to give over-60s
free off-peak bus travel.
The Chancellor also gave the formal go-ahead
to Crossrail.
Source TimesOnline
10 Otober 2007
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