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M42 hard shoulder opens to rush-hour traffic next month

31st August 2006, Page 10
31st August 2006
Page 10
Page 10, 31st August 2006 — M42 hard shoulder opens to rush-hour traffic next month
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The scheme is intended to cut rush-hour congestion without causing hold-ups, and if successful it may be extended to other sections of motorway throughout the country. Guy Sheppard reports.

THE M42 IS TO become the first motorway in the country where the hard shoulder is used as a fourth traffic lane from next month (September). The Highways Agency (HA) predicts a significant reduction in congestion when the extra lane between Junctions 3A and 7 in the West Midlands is opened to traffic during the rush hour.

HA spokesman Anthony Aston says this section was chosen because it is such a busy national link between the M40 and the M6:"Once you mix long-distance traffic with [local] junction-hopping traffic, it causes quite a lot of congestion."

Because use of the hard shoulder will be confined to vehicles leaving at the next exit, the potential for hold-ups will be reduced, he adds.

The scheme has taken years to prepare for, with emergency ref uge areas (ERAs) being built for breakdown vehicles every 500m.

Vehicle recovery operators warned the ERAs were too short to allow them to build up enough speed to rejoin traffic safely, but Aston claims most are now satisfied following consultation.

Overhead message boards, currently used to vary speed limits, will tell drivers when the hard shoulder is open to traffic.

The idea has already been adopted in Germany and Holland.

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Organisations: Highways Agency

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