Grayling reveals first major road upgrade schemes

1 Oct 18

York, Barrow and Ollerton are among the places to receive investments from the £100m Major Road Network fund.

The fund is targeted at “middle tier” roads, which are busy and economically important A roads, but not considered trunk roads. Money for the fund comes from Vehicle Excise Duty.

Local authorities with eligible roads can bid for a share of funds to tackle traffic jams and bottlenecks through measures such as road widening and bypasses.

Transport secretary Chris Grayling today announced the first five MRN schemes. They are:

  • a new section of the York outer ring road
  • modernisations to Gallows Corner in east London
  • the farmyard bottleneck on the Grizebeck Bypass near Barrow in Furness
  • the A614 near Ollerton in Nottinghamshire
  • new slip roads in Thurrock.

 

Construction is expected to start in 2020-21.

Grayling said: “We are spending record amounts on improving our roads and we want more of our busiest roads to benefit from guaranteed investment.

“These first five schemes will unlock no end of benefits for communities by improving motorists’ journeys, taking traffic away from built up areas, as well as enabling new housing to be built and creating more jobs.”

Grayling also announced a ‘one-click’ compensation scheme for rail passengers affected by delays and disruption.

The system would use latest technology to make the process of claiming compensation fairer and faster, he said.

“As a rail commuter myself I know how frustrating it can be when things go wrong. This Conservative government is on the side of passengers, making sure you can claim what you are owed when rail journeys don’t go to plan,” Grayling said.

  • Vivienne Russell
    Vivienne Russell is managing editor of Public Finance magazine and publicfinance.co.uk

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