Carry on road building schemes
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ONLY a week after the lifting of the Government moratorium on road building, plans have been announced for new major trunk roads including part of the controversial M25 London orbital motorway.
The new section of the M25 is the Swanley to Sevenoaks road for which a preferred route has been announced. It will connect Dartford to Swanley to form part of the high priority motorway.
After public consultations the new route will run from the Swanley interchange of M20 and M25 to join M25, M26 and A21 at an interchange at Sevenoaks. The existing Sevenoaks by-pass will be upgraded to form part of the new motorway.
In Kent, the A249 is to be improved using a £1.1 million grant from the Department of Transport. The road will link the M2 motorway with the port of Sheerness.
Britain has also entered two new schemes in the EEC journal for tenders to be given: the M56 at Hapsford, Cheshire, and a proposed interchange with the M53I also in Cheshire.
Entering schemes like this gives European road builders the chance to tender for contracts, but a DTp spokesman said that it was rare for foreign tender to be advanced because of problems with moving plant across the Channel.
The moratorium was put into effect last December in the hope of saving about £40 million on the English trunk road building programme over two years and another £25 million on local transport capital projects.
But Transport Minister William Rodgers, has told the House of Commons that by re-arranging starting dates and allowing priority schemes to go ahead he can still achieve the necessary savings.
Others included on the list for building include the London to Great Yarmouth Al2, which, it is proposed would be upgraded to dual carriageway.
Plans are also being displayed for improvements to the Newcastle to Edinburgh trunk road at Ott erburn, and another MI motorway junction in London is on the list for improvement.
The southbound junction of the MI and A41/Al is to be closed and a new dual carriageway connecting the road with the A406 North Circular is to be built.