Three Road Schemes Will Cost £14m.
Page 50
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THREE road schemes which will cost 1 more than £14m. were mentioned in the House of Commons, last week, by the Minister of Transport, Mr. Harold Watkinson. He said he was making grants totalling more than £10m. towards them.
The projects are the duplication of the Blackwall Tunnel under the Thames, which will cost £7,500,000, the New Park Lane scheme, London, to cost .£5,800,000, and the second section of the Birmingham inner ring road, costing more than £1,000,000. Already £3,200,000 has been spent on this ring road.
Work on the Blackwall Tunnel is planned to start this autumn, and will probably be completed in about five years. The tunnel will be about 250 yd. downstream from the existing one, running nearly parallel to it. The idea is for northbound traffic to use the existing tunnel and southbound traffic to use the new one.
Also starting in the autumn, the New Park Lane scheme will be the most comprehensive road improvement in Central Landon for 50 years. It has been designed to improve the flow of traffic at one of the busiest junctions in the country—nearly 100,000 vehicles pass around Hyde Park Corner alone every day.
The Birmingham project provides for another 620 yd. of road to be built with an overall width of 120 ft. The result should be to relieve severe congestion in the city centre.
CEYLON PLAN FOR TYRES
A FACTORY which will produce rt 360,000 tyres and tubes a year is to be built in Ceylon under a Ceylon-Soviet economic aid scheme. The factory will be built in two stages. When the first is completed production will be 250,000 tyres and tubes a year, and maximum output will come with the completion of the second stage.
Leading Soviet engineers are planning the project. At present, Ceylon imports 120,000 tyres and 80,000 tubes a year.
THEIR 49th CONVICTION
STATED at Sheffield, last week, to have had 48 convictions for overweight offences since 1951, R. Harrison and Son, Ltd., hauliers, Wakefield, were fined £10 after pleading guilty to using a lorry weighing over 24 tons. The driver was fined 12.
For the defence, it was stated that the company had only two convictions last year. That was "quite remarkable " for a concern with 33 lorries on the road.
LIGHTING SURVEY
A SURVEY of lighting on all trunk rA and Class 1 roads is being carried out by the Government with the co-operation of local authorities. A consultative committee has been set up to co-ordinate methods of lighting in the London area
This information was given by Lord Gosford in the House of Lords last week.
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Only Buses Respect Speed Limit
WHEN Glasgow Police carried out a radar check on the speeds of vehicles using the restricted sections of the Edinburgh road, they found that buses were the only ones observing the 30 m.p.h. speed limit.
This was stated by Chief Supt. M. MacLeod, head of the traffic department, at a public inquiry in Glasgow, last week. The inquiry was ordered by the Secretary of State for Scotland. Both the Secretary of State and Glasgow Corporation have given notice of proposals to impose a 30 m.p.h. limit on the sections of the road at present unrestricted.
Objections have been lodged by the motoring organizations. Supt. MacLeod said the radar check showed that over the restricted sections the average speed of private cars was 32.2 m.p.h. Goods vehicles averaged 32.7 m.p.h., motorcycles 31 m.p.h., and buses 26.7 m.p.h.
The inquiry, conducted by Mr. Sinclair Shaw, Q.C., was adjourned.
MINISTER'S MESSAGE
MEN employed on constructing the
London Birmingham Motorway found a message from the Minister of Transport, Mr. Harold Watkinson, in their pay packets last week. It congratulated them on their efforts to build 70 miles of dual carriageway in 19 months in face of atrocious weather conditions.
"You have seven months to finish the job before another winter sets in," he said. "If you succeed, it will be a great triumph for British civil engineering."