etropolitan vpass on way?

20th October 1978, Page 29

20th October 1978

Page 29

Page 29, 20th October 1978 — etropolitan vpass on way?

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Keywords : Transport In Kent, Transport In Buckinghamshire, M25 Motorway, Westway, Motorway, London

LONDON'S future road pattern should be geared towards helping lorry traffic and meeting the needs of the metropolis once the M25 orbital motorway is completed. So says a Greater London Council document which was approved last week by its planning and communications policy committee.

It proposes to spend £1,400m on a series of road improvements between now and 1993, many of them intended to alleviate the logjam in Central London which will remain after M25 is completed.

The report looks at the effects of M25's construction and at the traffic trends which GLC and the Department of Transport consider are likely to develop.

By 1996, London is expected to be relieved of two million vehicle miles — around 3.5 per cent — of its total traffic each year, and many of the diverted vehicles will be goods vehicles which have no need to enter the area, but which have no. suitable by-pass routes at present.

Over a fifth of all traffic crossing London at present enters and leaves by the northern and south-eastern sectors; in other words it is traffic going from the Midlands and North to and from the Channel ports. One-third of these are medium and heavy goods vehicles, and this sector is growing.

While GLC recognises that M25, which is due to be completed in 1985, will bring many benefits to the area, it is concerned that industry should not be attracted away from inner London to the green belt area in which M25 will run.

The secondary road scheme will, therefore, commit the council to a series of major schemes to relieve local problems. £132m will have been spent by then on a series of improvements to the overloaded A406 North Circular Road.

In addition, two schemes for the A40 — at Perivale Lane and West End Lane — will cost £10.5m, £22.5m will be spent on the A20 at Side up, E5m on the Al2 at Redbridge and Gallows Corner, £9.5m on the Dovers Corner-Lauders Lane section of the A13, and £0.2m on a revived dual carriageway for the Archway.

Beyond this, it wants immediate approval for a E63m extension of the North Circular to Barking, a £35m Hackney-Woodford motorway, and a £60m cross-river link to serve Thamesmead.

From there, a massive £900m scheme is envisaged to take the system up to the standard needed by 1993, with 57 schemes including a £40.8m Rochester Way relief road, a £27.1m Docklands relief road, and a El4m A312 HayesSouthall bypass. Freight operators will be heartened by the council's intention of relaying intersections to allow lorries to move more easily. • These include a £7.95m northern approach to Tower Bridge, £1.95m at Rotherhithe Tunnel, £0.5m at Vauxhall Bridge, £3.5m in central Catford, Elm at Coldharbour Lane, £6.3m at Peckham High Street, £2m at New Cross, £6.8m at the Angel, Islington, £1.9m at Camberwell Green, £5.16m and £1.47m at Hammersmith, £1.114m at Euston Road, Elm at Clapham Common, and £1.799m at Old Oak Lane.

While these schemes have been publicised by GLC, word was also spreading last week of a planned £0.4m first stage of a lorry route from the M40 Westway through to dockland.

This scheme includes a 40 per cent increase in the capacity of City Road and substantial demolition of property around King's Cross and Islington.

When CM spoke to GLC last week, a spokeswoman said there are no plans for such an east-west route.

But if it is on the council's plans — some parties are suggesting that the report may have been leaked to test public reaction — then road haulage interests will be quick to sup port it. • A Road Haulage Association spokesman said: "We would welcome an east-west lorry route, and indeed anything which avoids the need for lorries to make unnecessary journeys through Central London.

"It would also help to revitalise the depressed docklands," he added.

The Freight Transport Association is also keen on the idea, a spokesman for its South-Eastern area saying: "We welcome any alleviation of the situation which exists in London, but the timespan is important. We really want immediate effects, not something which will take 15 or more years to be built." Whether or not any lorry route is planned, it is certain that road improvements are high on GLC's current list of priorities, and that lorries and vans will be treated with the respect that they deserve.

• Alan Millar

etropolitan vpass on way?

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