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Plans 'shortsighted'
Page 7
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COUNTY surveyor's claim that British motorways are being damaged by heavy ehicles and not by poor maintenance has drawn criticism from road transport iterests.
West Midlands surveyor Stuart MusAv told Institution of Municipal Engin.?,rs conference delegates that damage to iotorways has been caused largely by the constant pounding from heavy glides, not by a lack of maintenance". A Road Haulage Association spokesan told CM: "The fault lies with irecasters. Heavy lorries were around at le time of motorway building."
Freight Transport Association Midland mtroller Martin Richards said: "The ult is not that of the heavy lorry, but of anners. What we are seeing now is a ost wonderful example of shortsighted anning."
He added: "It is perfectly true that the 'ads are being broken up by heavy mimercial vehicles, but the planners ust have known that the numbers of Immercial vehicles would increase and at they would become heavier."
The RHA spokesman added: "This is a zious circle. Lorries must have springs id dampers replaced much sooner, so e haulage operator — and industry — ust pay more."
A British Roads Federation spokeswoan described the problem as "a gross Ls-estimation of traffic flows", adding that "we ought to look with a cool and clear eye to the future".
All three organisations agree that motorway building should be pressed ahead and that three-lane roads should be built, no matter what political penalty is paid in the short term.
Martin Richards said: "The decision to build the M5 to two lanes was absurd. It is so disturbing that we are now talking of two-lane roads or even single carriageways instead of three-lane motorways. We are recreating the same situation 10 years hence."
The RHA spokesman criticised cutbacks in motorway building and added: "It is disastrous that, as yet, neither motorways nor motorway standard roads have been built from the Midlands to the East Coast.
"While global trade has decreased," he said, "EEC trade — from East Coast ports — has been going up steadily."
Martin Richards feels that the effects of major motorway repairs and reconstruction work will strike not only at vehicle operators, but also at industry.
He said: "This will upset the thing which makes this country tick — our trade and industry."