Government to spend money on roads
Including traffic controls and car pool lanes
Motorway junction
Transport Secretary Alistair Darling has announced a £1.38 billion package of schemes "to improve safety and reduce congestion on key sections of the motorway network in Yorkshire, Hampshire and Essex."
Buried in the details of the scenes (highlights below), Darling also invited the Highways Agency, which manages the work, "to consider physical Integral Demand Management (IDM) measures that would seek to safeguard the benefits of these improvements by introducing such interventions as Access Control and High Occupancy Vehicle (HOV) Lanes. These are currently being considered by the Highways Agency as part of a national programme to develop guidance on implementation of IDM."
In other words, the agency will need consider whether to implement traffic light access control to the motorways, and whether to add a car pool lane.
Scheme highlights:
- £1.29 billion for the M1 (Chesterfield to Leeds) and M62 (Huddersfield to Leeds) to widen to dual four lanes
- £78 million to widen the M27 in both directions between junctions 3 and 4 near Southampton and to introduce climbing lanes between Junctions 11 and 12, near Portsmouth
- £8 million to reduce congestion on M25 J28, the junction with the A12, (Brook Street interchange, near Brentwood, Essex), by improving access to the slip road to the A12 north east.
Alistair Darling said, "The Government is committed to improving the strategic road network and to providing extra capacity where it is needed. The M1 and M62 are two of Britain's most important routes and these schemes will support regeneration across the North of England, improve the reliability of journey times and ease congestion for road users.
"Widening the M27 motorway between Junctions 3 and 4 where the M3 and M27 merge north of Southampton will add vital extra capacity. The climbing lane scheme at Portsdown Hill will involve the addition of a lane eastbound from Junction 11 and westbound from Junction 12.
"The M27 is an important South Coast route and about 110,000 vehicles use these stretches daily. These improvements will bring reduced congestion, quicker and more reliable journeys, and improved safety.
"Both schemes will be built within existing highway limits minimising the impact on the environment and surrounding communities, and will bring real benefits to traffic.
"The funding announced today for the M25 Junction 28 is a very important scheme for local and long distance drivers. It will complement the M25 widening programme, announced in April 2004, and is due to be completed by 2014. The improvement will increase junction capacity for local and long distance drivers and reduce congestion, one of our big commitments to drivers.
Image courtesy www.speedcam.co.uk
As for the rest of it, it's just Labour doing what they've become past masters at. Produce a bill that's sweet and sour - point out that without swalling the sour you don't get to enjoy the sweet so nobody votes against it and they get more of their insidious ideas set in statute. (The biggest example of this being the University top up fees - stick it in a bill with bringing back grants and tell MPs vote for the whole bill or none of it - but it'll be your fault that all those poor students won't be getting grants)
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