Currently reading: Government sets out £6.1 billion road improvements plan

£6.1 billion of £23 billion road network upgrades have been earmarked for road improvements

The Government has set out plans for £6.1 billion of road improvements across the country, with the main aims being quicker journey times and better access between areas. 

This funding is part of a wider a wider £23 billion scheme to upgrade the UK's road network.

Eight projects will begin in the next 6 months, while consultations on a further ten will begin and 29 final plans will be submitted.

In total, progress will be made on 55 projects by the beginning of 2018. Some of these will be with a view to improving traffic flow and making roads safer - the A19 Downhill Lane junction in the North East and proposed plans for the A1 given as examples. 

Unusually, air quality has not been mentioned in the scheme, despite the Government’s best efforts to improve this in UK cities. One London route is being improved; the A12 M25 to Chelmsford, while there will be a consultation on the M27, which links air quality blackspot Southampton with Portsmouth. 

Director of the RAC Foundation, Steve Gooding, said: “The fear has always been that road programmes, like the morning mists, have a tendency to fade away before our eyes.

“This latest unveiling is therefore a particularly welcome demonstration that the promised money is not only available but is being spent on schemes that really matter, and that our calls to remember the local roads — where our journeys begin and end — are being heard.”

Read more: 

The pothole in the Government’s road repair plan

Potholes: how much they cost the UK and how they are fixed

Government to trial £150 million connected roads project in 2017

Department for Transport survives government restructure

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max1e6 2 July 2017

Fixing the roads

1) Get rid of all of the speed humps. 2) Get rid of all of the bus lanes. 3) Remove unnecessary traffic lights. 4) Turn off traffic lights during off peak hours.

Road repairs:
1) Tarmac smoothness - fix sections of tarmac that are very rough - French motorways in Paris have extremely good quality tarmac. Why can't the UK have that kind of tarmac?
2) Properly fix the potholes
3) Sections of road that have been dug up by utility companies should be replaced. The cost of these repairs should be passed on fully to the utility companies.

A new government will have to be formed to do these tasks properly - a government that cares about the quality of life of the British people.

Andrew 61 30 June 2017

Marvellous,

and useful but where are the new motorways ? How about scraping HS 2 and using the rail corridor and money for an eight lane road. Use state of the art road surfacing and design then equip for 90 mph speed limit.
The road equivalent of high speed rail. M6 HS1 would benefit far more travellers than a new rail line and probably cheaper to build.
In the meantime M6 has 19 miles of roadworks through Cheshire with 6 blokes and a digger on site, if this is Highways England idea of efficient working they need to be quietly taken to one side and er instructed to pull their finger out. Although it does give several years for the speed cameras to clock up a nice total of fines.
fadyady 30 June 2017

At last

It sounds like a big sum but it really isn't given the sorry state of our roads. Something is better than nothing out of the miserly Tories. Their spending priorities seem rather twisted.