The events held yesterday and today form part of an ongoing regional roadshow to drive home Highways England’s national plan for 112 major road improvements, including 15 smart motorway projects in it first five years of operation.
Roads minister Andrew Jones said the Government spending plan was to triple levels of spending on England’s roads by the end of the decade.
“As part of our long-term economic plan, we are making the biggest investment in roads in a generation.”
He underlined the Government’s commitment to spend £3.8bn in both regions, ahead of the Chancellor’s spending review on 25 November, which many industry watchers fear could take a slice out of planned transport investment.
Midlands (£1.8bn): schemes to start by 2021
- Improvements planned for M42 junction 6
- New smart motorway around the M42/M40 interchange
- Development of a new link road connecting M54, M6 and the M6 Toll
- New, bigger M6 Junction 10
- Plans to replace roundabouts at A50 Uttoxeter
- Widening of the A500 at Etruria, Stoke-on-Trent
- New smart motorway between M6 junctions 13 and 15
- Improvements planned for A46 junctions
- A new smart motorway between junction 2 and 4 of the M6
- Improvement for the A38 Derby junctions
- Widening of the A5 Dodwells to Longshoot
- A new smart motorway between junction 23a and 25 of the M1
Across the West Midlands, Highways England will also spend around £600m on maintenance, including £160m to resurface more than 900 miles of carriageway; £225m for repairing and renewing structures like bridges and viaducts; and £60m to improve vehicle barriers.
East of England (£2bn): schemes to start by 2019/20
- A14 Cambridge to Huntingdon major improvements in Cambridgeshire
- Upgrading six sections of the A47/A12 corridor in Norfolk across a 115 mile section of the A47 between Peterborough and Great Yarmouth.
- Increasing capacity on the A1(M) providing an additional 14 lane miles to relieve congestion in Hertfordshire, including Stevenage and Welwyn Garden City
- Upgrading technology at junctions on the M11 across Essex and Cambridgeshire, from Stansted Airport to Cambridge
- Providing technology along the A12 in Essex and Suffolk from the M25 to Ipswich and widening the stretch between Chelmsford and the A120 to 3 lanes
- Providing a new 13 mile stretch of dual carriageway on the A428 between western Cambridgeshire and the north east of Bedfordshire
- Building 17 new cycle paths including along parts of the A12, A47, A120 and A5.
