Plan for 25-mile Ring Motorway Over London Railways
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ARING motorway around the centre of London, which could be built almost entirely above or by the side of existing railways, was proposed to the Minister of Transport by the British Road Federation this week. Lord Dement, B.R.F. chairman, said on Wednesday that the 25-mile route could be completed in seven years.
Whilst the Federation accepted the Road Traffic and Road Improvements Bill as a " useful first-aid measure," stated Lord Derwent, the permanent solution of London's traffic problems called for a more radical approach.
At the moment, London County Council were reviewing their development plan. "In our opinion, the highway improvement and construction proposals in the revised plan just published today are totally inadequate for the traffic," Lord Derwent declared.
"We feel that every aspect of the plan is so dependent upon proper provision for traffic that we have entered a formal objection against the plan as a whole because, in our view, no part of it can be in the public interest while the fundamental of road communications is dealt with so inadequately," he added.
The revised plan was based on an annual expenditure of £6m. on roads in the L.C.C. area. The Federation's ring and radial motorways would make a fifth of these schemes unnecessary.
The line of the suggested motorway, taking Shepherd's Bush as a starting point, connects with Westway (A40) and then runs north of Regent's Park, through Islington and around the northern corner of Victoria Park, Hackney, from where it leads south to the Thames. Along this section it would connect with the A5, an MI link as proposed by the Association of Metropolitan Borough Engineers, Al, A10 and Al2. South of the Thames the motorway would cross the Old Kent Road and Queen's Road about a mile west of their junction at New Cross Gate, and then run west approximately parallel with the South Circular Road some 24 miles away. It would skirt the south-western corner of Battersea Park and run north-west to Shepherd's Bush with a link to the A4 at Cromwell Road.
The Federation consider that the motorway, with dual three-lane carriageways, would cost not less than £2-1m. a mile, including intersections. A tunnel under the Thames would cost £21m., so that the total would be some £83fm.
By building the road over railways, r ehousing commitments would be reduced, and British Railways would gain income from rents for the space taken by the motorway both above and by the side of their tracks.
One of the advantages claimed for the suggested road is that it would "provide the opportunity to develop an express-bus form of public transport." It would also encourage comprehensive redevelopment of the decaying 19th century areas through which it would pass.
BAN ON NEAR SIDE?
A MONGST a number of traffic proposals raised at a public inquiry which opened in Birmingham on Wednesday was one to prohibit the loading and unloading of goods vehicles on the near side only on 14 of the major radial roads leading from the city centre. The proposed ban would operate between the hours of 4.30-6:30 p.m. Mondays to Fridays, and from noon2 p.m. on Saturdays.• Strong objections have been lodged by the West Midland Division of the Traders' Road Transport Association and 21 other interested bodies.