The Government’s plans for a “roads revolution” £15bn investment to improve congested major roads across the UK include schemes designed to improve access routes in the North West.
Above: Artists impression of A6 Relief Road to Manchester Airport
Announced today (1 December 2014) by Transport Secretary Patrick McLoughlin and Chief Secretary to the Treasury Danny Alexander, the government is investing in more than 100 new road schemes over this parliament and next, 84 of which are brand new today.
Among the major plans are 9 schemes worth £800 million, estimated to create 600 jobs across the including North West including:
- M62 North West and Yorkshire: Driving forward the northern powerhouse by completing the “smart” lane on the M62 from Manchester to Leeds
- Improving links to the Port of Liverpool
- A tunnel connecting the north of Sheffield with Manchester, easing congestion on the Woodhead Pass
- The much debated Mottram Bypass, creating easier cross-Pennine via the M67
- Plans are already approved for the A6 Relief road providing easier southerly routes with Manchester Airport
Transport secretary Patrick McLoughlin described the investment as the “biggest, boldest and most far-reaching roads programme for decades.”
Across the UK, schemes include further notoriously congested routes including:
- £2bn affecting the A303 and A358, including a tunnel at Stonehenge
- £290m for the A1 dual to make the entire route from London to Ellingham, 25 miles from the Scottish border, dual carriageway
- £350m of improvements to the A27 along the south coast
- £300m improving connection to Norfolk, including making sections of the A47 dual carriageway and improving its connections to the A1 and A11
- Improving one-third of the junctions on the M25
- Improving the M42 to the east of Birmingham