MOMMENT M25 AND BEYOND
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• There has been much celebration this week of the 'completion' of the long-awaited — and even longer-needed — London orbital motorway. That it is now possible to drive all the way around London (well, almost all the way) on a motorway is a cause for celebration, indeed. That celebration, however, has to be tempered by the fact that the M25 is not really complete, and will not be for some time.
There is still a bottleneck section of 'A' road forming a vital and inadequate link in the M25 chain — the short stretch through the Dartford tunnel — and the process of building the eventual relief road for that has hardly started. There is still the overloaded Surrey section of the M25, jammed to crawling pace every rush-hour and with an unacceptably high accident rate: the widening of that to four lanes will take many more years of construction and disruption. There is still a complete lack of service areas on the M25, and will be for at least another year. There are still sections of the M25 which are being upgraded into true motorway, acquiring lighting and barriers after they have been pressed into service.
None of which should detract from the fact that there is now a motorway to take traffic away from London. Those who celebrate this week should remember, however, that there are hundreds of towns and cities in Britain still awaiting their bypasses. What is left, with more than 600 bypasses in some stage of planning, is much more road then the M25's 188km. What is left is much more cost than the M25's V. billion. Alas, what is also left is much more waiting for those who deserve these bypasses — in some cases longer than the 25 years it has taken to get the M25 to the state it is in today. It must he hoped that with the pressure off from London the Government will not feel that it can relax: other areas may lack the political and financial clout of London — but they do not lack the right to their relief as well.