What's this about?
England's roads are set to benefit from £15 billion of government money to increase capacity and improve their condition. Called the 'Road investment strategy' over 100 new schemes will be implemented over the course of this parliament and the next, adding more than 1,300 new lane miles to the country's network. Transport Secretary Patrick McLoughlin and Chief Secretary to the Treasury Danny Alexander announced the plan on 1st December.
What's in the plan?
The whole country is set to benefit with most regions seeing some changes. Highlights of the scheme include £2 billion to convert the entire lengths of the A303 and A358 to dual carriageway and creating a dual carriageway route from London to within 15 miles of Land's End, including a tunnel under Stonehenge. Further dual carriageway schemes include the remaining sections of the A1 between London and Ellingham and improving parts of the A47 in Norfolk.
'Smart motorways' are also part of the plan; the M62 between Manchester and Sheffield is earmarked for improvement to improve 'transpennine' transport links. To the east of Birmingham the M42 will also gain extra capacity to improve connections with Birmingham airport, the National Exhibition Centre, local businesses and to create an interchange for a future High Speed 2 railway station.
Drivers around London and the south east will benefit from improvements to one third of the junctions on the M25 to ease traffic flow.
Anything else?
Improving the condition of England's roads should also be ensured by the £10 billion of maintenance funding allocated to the local and national network in the course of the next parliament. Money has been set aside to improve cycling facilities at 200 locations while part of a £300 million environmental fund will provide charging points for electric vehicles every 20 miles.
John Lambert - 3 Dec 2014