Fewer and
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cheaper
new roads
THV Government has decided to reduce the amount of money devoted to building motorways and trunk roads, and the standards of roads will be reduced to save land and money.
This was announced by the Minister for Transport, Mr Fred Mulley, on Monday.
The Minister said; "After making full allowance for a substantial shift of freight and passenger traffic from road to rail, a continuing national road programme is necessary on both economic and environmental grounds. This expenditure will be at a reduced level in real terms."
Spending on new trunk roads in England in the year ended March 1974 was £222m (at November 1972 prices) and provision for new works in the present year is £213m, at November 1973 prices; the amount in real terms will be less in future years.
At a press conference in London on Monday, Mr Mulley said that the railways would, under his new financing scheme, be getting broadly twice the money involved in his reduced trunk road programme. Priority would, however, be given to the road needs of the heavy lorry.
The cutback in spending will be seen mainly as a slowing down of the plan for a 3,100-mile national network of "high-quality" roads; this network should now be completed by the early 1980s, instead of the late 1970s; since it forms the backbone of the intended designated national lorry routes system, it is likely to be 10 years before such a complete system is ready.
Mr Mulley announced that, since it had been found that some new roads were carrying traffic flows higher than the designed capacity, future main roads were likely to be built to lower standards — for example, an intended dual three-lane road would now become a dual two-lane road. The result would be adequate for off-peak traffic but could cause some crowding at peak times.
Lorry routes
A map shown at Mr Mulley's press conference revealed the basic outline of the planned national lorry routes. The first phase is based on the motorway network plus such main trunk routes as Al / A14, A45, A5, Al2, A66/ A64, A2, A34 and A46. The priorities for the second stage will be two new major link roads, the first from near Oxford (M40) via Banbury to join the extended trunk road system near Leamington Spa, and the second to connect Al laterally with MI near Rugby and thus close a gap in the link between the Midlands and the East Anglian ports.
Drivers' strike enters sixth week
A STRIKE by about 280 drivers of refrigerated meat lorries in Liverpool has now entered its sixth week. The drivers, members of the TGWU, called the strike in support of a guaranteed week.
A spokesman for Ritsons Haulage Ltd, Liverpool, one of the four large transport firms to he hit by the strike, told CM on Tuesday that so far the drivers' action had had little effect on meat supplies. He said that negotiations had reached deadlock, but added: "We hope that something might be resolved this week."