DEPARTMENT FOR
TRANSPORT News Release (111) issued by The Government News Network
on 16 July 2008
Ruth Kelly,
Transport Secretary, today announced a £6 billion investment
package to improve and make better use of England's motorways
and other key roads. She also published the Command Paper
'Roads - Delivering Choice and Reliability' setting out
more detail on her innovative plans to tackle congestion, both on
strategic routes and in our towns and cities.
This will fund a mix of techniques to get the most out of the
existing network, such as opening the hard shoulder to traffic,
taking forward the Advanced Motorway Signalling and Traffic
Management Feasibility Study which identified almost 500 lane
miles of motorway with the potential for hard shoulder running.
Ruth Kelly said:
"I am determined to get the best from our road network so
that motorists have reliable journey times on roads that are safe
and well-managed. The greatest barrier to this is congestion. It
is frustrating and has serious consequences for the economy and
the environment.
"To achieve this we need a smarter programme of investment.
The £6 billion I am announcing today will allow us to develop and
implement more innovative approaches to the way we use our major
roads. This includes measures like opening the hard shoulder when
traffic is at its heaviest, alongside some conventional widening
where that makes best sense.
"Where we add new capacity through measures like this I am
also interested to see what role car share or tolled lanes could
play in helping traffic flow more smoothly - giving motorists a
choice about how they make their journeys."
New funding has also been announced for our biggest towns and
cities, recognising that 80% of congestion is currently in urban
areas. This sees eight areas - Bristol, Greater Manchester,
Leicester, London, Merseyside, South Yorkshire, Tyne and Wear and
the West Midlands - benefiting from the first allocation of the
performance-based £60m Urban Congestion Performance Fund.
Leeds has also won pump-priming funding to join those local
authorities looking at tackling congestion through public
transport improvements combined with local congestion charging.
Cambridgeshire and Reading also receive further pump-priming funds
to carry on developing their congestion-busting plans.
Ruth Kelly added:
"The majority of congestion is in our towns and cities,
where the answer cannot be building new roads. That is why I will
continue to support councils who want to investigate whether
radical packages, which include public transport improvements
combined with local congestion charging, would be the right
solution for them."
Today's announcement includes:
- Up to £6bn in funding for improvements to strategic national
roads in the period up to 2014 to cut congestion, support economic
growth and improve road safety.
- Further details of how the hard shoulder could be used to
provide extra space on the motorway network. We are looking in
particular at sections of the motorway network previously planned
for widening, and at some new locations including the M3 and M4
approaches to London, the M4 and M5 around Bristol and the M3 and
M27 around Southampton. We are also considering how to make best
use of the extra capacity, including looking at successful
examples of dedicated or tolled lane use in America and
hard-shoulder running in Europe.
- Revised cost estimates for the Highways Agency Major Roads
Programme, including regional priorities.
- Pump priming funding for Cambridgeshire, Reading and Leeds
through the up to £200m a year Transport Innovation Fund to allow
them to investigate how they can manage congestion in innovative ways.
- The first tranche of performance-based funding from the £60m
Urban Congestion Performance Fund. The first performance payments,
totalling £6 million, will be shared between Bristol, Greater
Manchester, Leicester, London, Merseyside, South Yorkshire, Tyne
and Wear and the West Midlands.
- An additional £8m to help local authorities manage their
transport assets more effectively.
Notes to Editors
1. The Command Paper 'Roads - Delivering Choice and
Reliability' is available on the DfT website http://www.dft.gov.uk/pgr/roads/introtoroads/roadcongestion/roadscommandpaper1.pdf
2. £6bn is being made available for Highways Agency major
projects on the national strategic roads network from 2008/09 to
2013/14. This funding will be used to complete the delivery of
those schemes already in construction as laid out below:
Scheme Type of Scheme Location
A1 Bramham to Wetherby Upgrading trunk road Yorkshire, between Leeds
to motorway standard and York
M1 Junctions 6a-10 Motorway widening Hertfordshire
M1 Junctions 25-28 Motorway widening Nottinghamshire
M6 Carlisle to Upgrading trunk road Cumbria
Guardsmill to motorway standard
A14 Haughley New St to Trunk road widening Suffolk Stowmarket
M25 Junctions 1b-3 Motorway widening Kent
M40 Junction 15 Junction improvement Warwickshire
(Longbridge Roundabout)
M62 Junction 6 Junction improvement Liverpool
A5117 / A550 Deeside Junction improvement Cheshire Park Junction
3. It will also allow new schemes to enter construction over the
next three years. These include:
* upgrading of the A1 to motorway standard between Dishforth and Barton
* widening the M25 between Junctions 16 and 23 and Junctions 27
and 30
* widening the A14 between Ellington and Fen Ditton
* implementing hard shoulder running on the M6 around Birmingham.
4. The funding will also allow a significant proportion of the
schemes listed for consideration below to enter construction
before 2014. Following the Advanced Motorway Signalling and
Traffic Management Feasibility Study published in March 2008 the
Department and the Highways Agency have established a programme to
investigate in detail deploying hard shoulder running more widely.
This work is looking at the costs, benefits and deliverability of
replacing existing planned motorway widenings with hard shoulder
running, as well as deploying hard shoulder running on other areas
of the network identified in the Feasibility Study. This work is
due to be complete by the end of the year. Schemes being
considered for hard shoulder running to enter construction before
2014 are:
Schemes being considered for hard shoulder running
M1 Junctions 10-13 M1 J13-19 (Bedfordshire/
(Hertfordshire/Bedfordshire) Buckinghamshire/Northamptonshire)
M1 Junctions 21-30 (Phase 2) M1 Junctions 30-31 (Sheffield)
(Leicestershire/Nottinghamshire)
M1 Junctions 32-34 (Sheffield) M1 Junctions 34-37 (Yorkshire)
M1 Junctions 37-39 (Yorkshire) M1 Junctions 39-42 (Wakefield)
M3 / M4 approaching M25 (West M4 / M5 around Bristol London)
M5 / M6 around Birmingham M6 Junctions 11a-19 (Birmingham)
M6 / M60 / M62 / M56 around M20 J3-5 (Maidstone) Manchester
M23 J8-10 (Gatwick) M25 Junctions 5-7 (Kent/Surrey)
M25 Junctions 23-27 M27 / M3 around Southampton
(Hertfordshire) (Hampshire) M62 Junctions 25-30
(Bradford/Leeds)
5. We are also considering the following junction improvement
schemes to enter construction before 2014:
* M1 J19 / M6 the junction of the M1, M6 and A14 in the East
Midlands
* M20 J10a around Ashford in Kent
* M25 J30 near
the Lakeside shopping centre, Essex
* M40 J9 near Oxford
We are also considering capacity enhancement on the A14 around
Kettering and a dedicated lane from the M1 J31-32 to the M18 to
enter construction before 2014.
6. The Department today published cost estimates for the Highways
Agency Major Roads Programme. Since the Nichols Review last year,
the Highways Agency has made some important changes to its
management of the roads programme. These changes are outlined in
the Command Paper. The revised cost estimates for regional schemes
will help the regions plan their programmes more effectively over
the coming Regional Funding Allocation period. The estimates are
available on the DfT website http://www.dft.gov.uk/pgr/roads/introtoroads/roadcongestion/costestimates.pdf
7. It was announced in 2006 that up to £60 million will be
available over four years through the Urban Congestion Performance
Fund to encourage and incentivise local authorities in the 10
largest urban areas to outperform their own 2010-11 congestion
targets. The first tranche allocated today includes:
Urban Area Sum to be paid in 2008/09 Sum to be paid in 2009/10
Bristol £206,500 £82,500
Greater £627,000 £251,000 Manchester
Leicester £198,500 £79,500
LondonMerseyside £1,500,000£428,000 £600,000
£171,000
South Yorkshire £401,000 £160,500
Tyne & Wear £336,000 £134,500
West Midlands £585,000 £234,000
Total £4,282,000 £1,713,000
There will be four further tranches of performance-based payments
after the tranche announced today. All of the areas will be
eligible for payments in each of these tranches.
8. In March this year we announced the extension of pump priming
funding for local authorities to develop Transport Innovation Fund
proposals. Today we announced that, following a successful bid,
Leeds will be receiving pump priming funding, while Cambridgeshire
and Reading will receive further pump priming funding. Further
funding for the West of England Partnership (covering the Greater
Bristol area) was announced in April.
9. The Ministerial Statement today also reports the progress
being made with the Demonstrations Project, which will trial the
technology and processes that could underpin congestion charging.
The Department for Transport will today tell all those companies
who formally expressed an interest in participating in the Project
the names of the successful bidders. The trials are due to start
in the Autumn.
10. The Department announced on 23 January that £15m would be
made available to local highway authorities to help them develop
Transport Asset Management Plans so as to manage their assets more
effectively and improve the service they offer the public. We are
today increasing that funding to £23m and will shortly write to
authorities to explain how they can apply for an allocation from
this funding.
Public Enquiries: 020 7944 8300
Department for Transport
Website: http://www.dft.gov.uk