By 1970: 'More choked towns' is MoT verdict
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BY 1970 some 2,250 miles of England's 5,400-mile trunk road network will be seriously overloaded. .. and towns will be more choked than ever.
This is the verdict of the Ministry of Transport, in its annual report on roads in England, just published. It adds that, despite the fact that spending on roads has increased tenfold in the last 10 years, the rate of improvement is lagging behind the growth of congestion.
More and more is being spent—in the current financial year it will be just under £200m —but the report makes clear that things are likely to get worse before they get better.
One current objective of the Ministry is to get better value for its money in terms of administrative and engineering efficiency. Among the new processes to be applied will be a speeding up of the statutory procedures for fixing the routes of new motorways and trunk roads.
Local authorities have agreed that the preparation work for setting the main line of a new road shall in future be done together with the consequent alterations to side roads instead of, as in the past, one following the other.
Among engineering economies mentioned in the report is the decision to reduce the widths of motorways by 13ft. "Considerable cost saving has been achieved and safety is unaffected," says the Ministry, adding that the experts are now looking at ways of saving money on slip-road design and simpler drainage systems.