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No toll road as HA decides to widen M6
Page 12
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The proposed Expressway between Birmingham and Manchester has been abandoned due to fears of disruption. Guy Sheppard reports.
HAULAGE LEADERS and environmental campaigners have welcomed a decision to scrap proposals for a toll motorway between Birmingham and Manchester.
The Highways Agency (HA) will now concentrate on the alternative option of adding one lane in each direction of the M6 between junctions 11 and 19.
The toll motorway, known as an Expressway, was rejected because it would have caused more disruption and required 50% more land than widening.
With so many hauliers steering clear of the existingM6Toll around Birmingham, few were expected to use the Expressway. As a result, the proportion of trucks on the M6 would have increased, which the HA says would have caused problems for traffic leaving and joining the road.
Secretary of State for Transport Stephen Ladyman says research on the widening option will examine ways of containing traffic growth "to ensure the benefits of additional capacity are locked in".
The Freight Transport Association's road network policy officer Malcolm Bingham warns this could lead to further delays. However, the HA predicts that the first phase of widening could be completed by 2014 with the entire programme ready by 2017.
Mike Farmer, regional director of the RHA, says he is happy that the Expressway idea has been dumped, but warns that widening
is only a short-term solution.
Tan ia Sayer. of South Cheshire Friends of the Earth, says building a toll road would have set a damaging precedent, but adds that the £3bn cost of widening could be better spent on other initiatives.
• The FTA is warning of more misery and delays" along the A46 between Newark and Widmerpool following the announcement that £250m worth of improvements have been delayed until 2011 at the earliest.