Private cash plar for Britain's road
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• Traffic on Britain's motorways has increased so fast thE Transport Secretary Paul Channon may use private money to build new roads.
Motorway traffic has risen by 19% in the past year, com. pared with 13% for the UK road system as a whole — a growth rate almost five times higher than official predictions.
Earlier this week Channon met with his ministers, Treasury officials, merchant banks and construction groups to tackle the problem which British Road Federation chairman Olaf Lambert says is bringing Britain to a halt. "New facts emerge with alarming regularity to highlight the strain unde: which our road system operates", says Lambert.
Employers, unions and motoring organisations all agree that the situation is becoming critical and that inadequate roads are hampering industry by putting up costs compared with foreign rivals. 0 The Department of Transport plans to make savings by building part of the Birminghan extension of the LondonOxford M40 motorway with only two lanes each way.