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_Harpies Announces £12O m. Plan for Trunk Roads
Page 53
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From Our Political Correspondent THE modernization of the Great North . Road (Al) between London and Newcastle upon Tyne will be virtually completed when plans, announced last week by the Minister of Transport for authorization in the next four to five years, have becn carried through. .
Other featines of th..t programme—of trunk read schemes each costing more than.l00,000—are: the comprehensive improvement of the London to Ipswich road (Al2); the provision of dual carriageways on the A2 between the L.C.C. boundary and the Medway Motor Road; the provision of dual carriageways on the A40 betWeen Beaconsfield and Oxford, including the construction 'of the 13-mile-High WycoMbe by-pass as a motorway: and the removal of miscellaneous bOttlenecks, including that on the A30 at Honiton, Devon, which is to be by-passed.
Mr. Ma:.pleS has told M.P.s that the programme (Ill schemes in all, costing about £120 minion) has been drawn rip " as a result of a careful reView of what. is needed to make the trunk road system adequate for the traffic expected within the foreseeable future," Priority has been given to those routes carrying the heaviest volume of industrial and commercial traffic.
The actual date of starting` the Work will depend on the eornpletion of the hecessarY statutory processes and the avail-ability of funds. "
This programme is in addition to the motorway programme already an but will come broadly within the overall spending of £540 million on roads Overthe next five years.
Commenting on the programme to The Commercial. Motor,. an official of the British Road • Federation said: "
are glad to see that the Minister has listed those trunk road schemes which he hopes to authorize inthe next five years. The list looks impressive, but the .Minister does not say ,what proportion it represents of the ultimate need. He says 'a careful review ' .has been carried out to discover what is needed to make the 'ultimate trunk road system adequate for foreseeable traffic, It would be interesting to know the conclusions from that review.".
A spokesman for the Roads Campaign Council said: " Although any programme phased over a given. period with specified Griance must be: along the right lines, we feel that it is still unrealistic to spend only £24 million a year on trunk roads. Much of this programme is a rehash of pre, viOuslY annbunced sehetnes. Trunk roads -will continue to bear: a -heavy burden the demands of industry and the25 Million vehicles We expect to have by 1980 continue to grow: The programme still depends' on ' the availability Of funds.'"
. . . AND;
TCLASSIFIED -ROADS HE -Minister this Week iss-ued; the . grant programme forthe fourth year of his :£:15arri: rolling..Programme for claisified toadi—highways under the authority of local councils, but eligible for Ministry grants of up to 75 per cent.