57 highway schemes to go ahead

Date: 10/10/2012

A total of 57 schemes have been announced by Transport Secretary Patrick McLoughlin, which are expected to benefit the economy to the tune of £3 billion.

The improvement work is expected to cost £170 million, but is part of a larger scheme for the motorways and A roads of England, which has a budget of £217 million.

This scheme is designed to remove bottlenecks and improve traffic flow, which will in turn be good for businesses and commuters able to travel around the country more efficiently.

Mr McLoughlin said: "By removing bottlenecks and improving access to local enterprise zones, key international trading ports and communities, these road schemes will help get people to and from work and power the economy."

Much of the work will be carried out during 2013 and 2014 with the final date for completion being March 2015.

In all there will be 65 projects to be given funding from the government with the other eight to be announced next year.

Mr McLoughlin said: "They also have the potential to help deliver more than 300,000 new jobs and 150,000 new homes."

One of the improvements will see £11 million being spent to widen junction four of the M5 near Bromsgrove.

This will significantly benefit Longbridge, where the MG Rover manufacturing plant used to be situated.

In conjunction with a local authority and local enterprise partnership development plan, around 10,000 jobs will be created as well as 3,000 homes.

Work will be carried out all over England with projects of differing sizes, ranging from less than £1 million through to in excess of £7 million.

In the north east the A1/A19 Seaton Burn Interchange and Fisher Lane junction will have £6.1 million spent on improvements due to take place during 2014.

The most expensive scheme in the south west is that which concerns A38 Drumbridges roundabout improvement, Newton Abbott, at a cost of £4.1 million with work due to be carried out during 2014 and 2015.

Junction five of the M27 at Eastleigh will benefit from £4.9 million to serve the people of the south east.

In the Midlands, Solihull will see the most expensive project costing £7.4 million to improve junction six of the M42.

Posted by Mary Treen

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