'Private money hinders roads'
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• The Government's road building record came under fire this week as the British Roads Federation said initiatives to introduce private money into road construction sometimes made construction less efficient. Two important projects have been delayed by at least a year.
Department of Transport decisions last summer to remove both the L145m Al widening between Alconbury and Peterborough and the .£55m A30 replacement between Honiton and Exeter from the public road building programme mean that both roads will be unlikely to open until March next year—more than a year late, says the BRF.
The two roads are part of the Treasury-led initiative encouraging contractors to put up the money to build roads, drawn by the promise of yearly direct payments or "shadow tolls" from the Government once open.
The complexity of the new Design, Build, Finance and Operate schemes had led to the delay. The BRF's assistant director Paul Everitt says: "The aim of DBFO was to speed up schemes that were to be on top of the public programme. Instead, we're seeing new private replacing public finance and projects taking even longer."